








V^- 





4 O 



'bv 









■<tj. 'o 1 s 





'oV 




v-o^ 






^OV' 











v-^^ 






A 



^ - 








t-O^ 







0^ .L'-% V 



o « -^^ .<?.^ 







%^^^ 








iV'^ 








-4 o 



> 












A 





4 o 







<". 




0^ oo^. -^O 







^. 












v^ 





.4 






' ^^ 



-^q. 



0-0 ^ 




*o 



.0 










•^ o 



' ^^ 




o S 



^ 






.<iy 



<t. 




-f 



y 



^•^^. "^ 











^ A 
























o V 




^^^% 



.'S^ 













.'J^' 






-^^.^^ 



- .-i^^ 



'5^>. ^^ 



c 



0' 



'>t- 



THE 



CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 



</ 



a 



BY M. DE PRADT, 

AUTHOR OF 

"THE ANTIDOTE TO THE CONGRESS OE RADSTADT," AND 
"THE HISTORY OE THE EMBASSY TO WARSAW," ^c. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. 



COMPLETE m ONE VOLUME. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

PCBilSHED BY M. CAREY, NO. 121, CHESNTIT-STKBET^ 

AND 

WEUiS AND LILLY, BOSTON. 
18i6. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface 

Cha?M. 

2. 

4. 
5. 
6. 

7. 



8. 



9. 
10. 

11. 



Preliminaries of the Congress 

Reappearance of Diplomacy 

Object of the Congress 

Division of Europe into two Zones 

New State of Nations 

Of the Political Balahce of Europe in gene- 
ral . . . . 

Of the Opportunities lost during the last Cen- 
tury of establishing the Political Balance 
of Europe .... 

"What has been done in Europe for the last 
One Hundred Years towards establishing 
the Balance of Power 

The Spirit presumed to actuate the Congress 

Of the real Spirit which actuates the Con- 
gress .... 

Of the Establishment of the Political System 



Page 
ix 

17 
19 

21 
23 
32 

45 



59 

66 

78 

86 





that existed 


in 1789 


96 


12. 


France 




100 


13. 


Great Britain 




114 


14. 


Prussia 




120 


15. 


Russia 




129 


16. 


Poland 




133 


17. 


Austria 




137 


18. 


The Empire 




143 


19. 


Italy.— The Pope . . ' . 


146 



viii Contents. 

Page 

Chap. 20. Saxony and Naples . . . 157 

21. Free Cities. — Hanse Towns . . 171 

22. Portugal.—Malta . . . 174 

23. Spain .... 179 
^ 24. Cession and Incorporation of Nations 180 
"™" 25. Permanent Policy of Europe . 184 

' 26. Twofold State of Europe . . 192 
-^ 27. Errors of the Congress.— Religion. — Colo- 
nies and Commerce . . 194 
38. Unfortunate Condition of Europe. — Dan- 
gers arising from it . . 216 

29. Of Political Writers, and their Relations 

with the maintenance of general Peace 330 

30. Last Treaty . , . . 235 



PREFACE. 



The Work on the Consress at Vienna, now offered 
to public notice, may be considered as a continuation oi 
those which I have written on the principal events of the 
past eighteen years. 

At Radstadtj the Germannic empire supported the 
weight of negotiations, which proved as useless in their 
results as the forms which accompanied them were pain- 
ful. At that time, appeared the ^^ Antidote to the Con- 
gress at Radstadt ,-'' sl Work, in which it was attempt- 
ed to correct the mistakes of the Congress, either by an 
exposition of the nature of revolutions, and the conside- 
ration of which appeared to have escaped its notice ; 
or by pointing out a system more appropriate to circum- 
stances than that which was adopted. 

In 1799, Austria, Russia, and a part of the empire, 
marched against the reigning authority in France. It 
was very clear that all their eflbrts, without the co- 
operation of Prussia, would be of no avail, and that, 
with it, their success would have been certain. It was 
not less evident that Prussia, entangled in the web of a 
policy, of the nature of which she herself was neither 
aware, nor could foresee the result, by thus separating 
herself from Europe, advanced towards the catastrophe 
she experienced within the course of six years. The 
consideration of the dangers attached to this conduct 



X Preface, 

occasioned the publication of the work, entitled, ^^ Prus- 
sia and her JSTentrality. 1799." 

Ten years since, the West India colonies were, some 
of them, subverted, and others threatened with the dis- 
orders, that, since the year 1790, have affected the co- 
lonial system. At that time, the great American conti- 
nent, in some of its divisions, experienced the effects 
of revolutionary principles, proceeding either from the 
events of a protracted contest, or the influence of its 
neighbour, the United States. In a word, the funda- 
mental principle of the colonial system was attacked, 
as well as its actual sitoation. An attempt was made 
to re-establish this principle, and to call the attention, 
of Europe to the state of the colonies, in a Work, en- 
titled '^The Three ^.ges of Colonies. 1801.'^ 

The Congress at Yieana, destined to put an end to 
the agitation of Europe, and to determine its situation 
for a long succession of ages, offers a most extensive 
field for reflection, on a subject irjUuitely more import- 
ant than the circumstances to which we have alluded. 
Europe should, for a length of time, have considered 
the Congress of Vienna as the commencement of a new 
era. From tliat period the spirit by which it was actu- 
ated should have been regarded with an high interest, 
as well as the results to be expected. Its object was 
no less than the arrangement of a political futurity for 
all Europe. If the edifice was solidly constructed, if 
its parts were well proportioned, it would remain, and 
Europe would, for a considerable time, have reposed 
under its tutelar protection. If, on the contrary, it 
erred from a want of the qualities essential to every 
species of construction, then the Congress will have 
proved itself to be a lesser benefit ; and its acts will not 
be found of such a character as we could have desired: 
It partakes more of the nature of a system of warfare 
than an establishment for the preservation of peace.) 
The f(jrraer is, in its very nature, transient. One cam- 
paign may repair the false calculations of another; but 
the object of peace being to correct the errors of war, 



Preface. xi 

it is more durable, and deserves a more serious consi- 
deration. If we seek for the causes of the wars that 
have crimsoned the plains of Europe for many ages, 
we sliall trace their origin to the very treaties which, 
under the appearance of putting au end to existing war, 
in fact did nothing else than lay the foundation of a new 
one. Since that which, in his energetic language, the 
illustrious Burke called W\q market of Bash,, how many 
treaties of peace have there been, that have not pro. 
duced new wars? Therefore, it would have been curi- 
ous to ascertain whether the Congress of Vienna, the 
absolute master of the subject, an advantage not pos- 
sessed in any other negotiations, would make use of 
this advantage with the latitude that circumstances re- 
quired, and the power with which it had been invested. 
To ascertain wliether this was or was not effected, is 
the object of this Work. It is not a history of the ne- 
gotiations of the Congress, but an investigation of the 
spirit by which it was actuated, and the probable con- 
sequences of the system it established. The determi- 
nations of the Congress are become public acts ; they 
concern the world, and should become the object of its 
scrutiny. We have proceeded in this investigation with 
the most perfect candour, and free from any party or 
local spirit. If we have expressed our opinion on every 
subject, it is because we have written for every person, 
and because truth is the interest of all. In uniting an 
accurate observation of this principle, to that regard 
which is due in its application to individuals, and more 
especially to the chiefs of nations, we believe that we 
have equally availed ourselves of what were our rights, 
and fulfilled the duties prescribed to us. 

If our earlier productions have been stamped with a 
sufficiently impartial character, not to be more attributed 
to an inhabitant of France, than to one of any other 
country, we may presume to hopevthat the same cha- 
racter will be no less distinguishable in the present. 
We might even say, that the more extensive the scene, 
it becomes the more difficult to abandon this impartial!- 



xii Preface. 

ty. In fact, can personal feelins^s find a place in the 
midst of sucli important interests ? Thus it is by no 
means with a view to favour Prussia, that our opinions 
on the subject of that state have been so fully expressed 
in the present work. Truth has alone guided and sup- 
ported us in the ideas, which we well know will not 
suit every taste. The same observation may be applied 
to an opinion on the subject of the union of Belgium and 
Holland, which will occasion a great loss to France, 
and be as contrary to our inclinations as our interests. 
But, in rejecting every personal idea, we have balanced 
the advantages and disadvantages of a political aqt, re- 
sulling from an established system, and the actual state 
of things, wherever may be found their origin. 

In treating of the Congress of Vienna we wish to re- 
mark : 

First; the extent of its labours, which embraced an 
immense mass of interests. At other periods, many 
years would have been scarcely sufficient to arrange this 
chaos; even when ability and sincerity in the agents, 
as well as good order, were supposed to exist. 

Second ; The vigour and determination displayed in 
the pursuit of the enemy, who appeared in the month of 
March. The Congress did not show a moment's hesi- 
tation, or division of opinion. By this conduct, the first 
expression of Napoleon, when he landed on the French 
shores, *' The Congress is dissolved,^' was rendered 
vain. Business and war have gone hand in hand. More 
time was not lost in the cabinet than in the field. If, 
from the first appearance of the revolution, such promp- 
titude of action had been exhibited, what misfortunes 
would not have been prevented ! 

Third ; The liberality of the sentiments professed 
and carried into execution by the Congress. Its object 
was not confined to individuals, whom they sought to 
unite in bonds of mutual friendship, but it also had the 
interests of nations^ in view ; vvitii regard to Switzer- 
land particiilarly, it evinced an honourable solicitude. 
The sovereigns, the guardians of its interests^ have 



Preface. xiii 

shown a perseverance in powerful efforts, that cannot 
be too much applauded, in order to overcome all the 
principles of hatred and dissension that divided the in- 
terests of Switzerland, and the various parties existing 
in that country. We have seen them arm themselves 
one against the other. We have seen the allies interfere 
between men ready to quarrel, labour to dissipate their 
prejudices, to conciliate their pretensions, and at last 
succeed, by leading them into the bosom of the same 
family. To their care will Switzerland be indebted 
for the enjoyment of a durable repose under the laws of 
her ancient association, and remain as she ever has, the 
last asylum of innocence, the most happy residence in 
Europe. 

Because we do not enter into all the views of the 
Congress, because we have dared to compare our own 
ideas with those it adopted, it does not follow that we 
call for their revision, still less for the destruction of its 
work. 

Too cruel experience has taught us the danger of 
proceeding so violently. We have only wished to show 
the probable consequences of the system established by 
the Congress, and, at the same time, to indicate the 
correctives which maybe applied for public benefit. To 
time alone it belongs to produce the circumstances fa- 
vourable to their application. Above all, it was of im- 
portance to render the condition of the various parties 
permanent; to distinguish the powerful and the weak; 
and thus to furnish the first elements of reflection to 
those men, who are every where charged with the main- 
tenance of a system that, however imperfect may be its 
arrangements, has cost them dear. 

Some may class part of this work with Utopian pro=. 
ductions ; an accusation very common with those who 
themselves possess neither foresight nor the means of 
action. This is granted. But let them also be careful 
in recollecting, that the Utopian ideas of '^ The Con- 
gress at Radstadt," of " Prussia and its Neutrality,'' 



xiv Preface. 

" The Three Ages of Colonies," have been, in a great 
measure, and long since, realised. 

The order of argument observed in this Work has 
I often led us to refer to the acts of Napoleon, of which 
I we shall for many ages experience the eflPect. He has 
covered Europe with wrecks aud monuments. Modern 
states are erected with the scattered fragments of his 
empire, as in former ages they were formed out of the 
wreclis of the Roman empire. This prince, who had 
visited Egypt, must have remarked, that the pyramids, 
for four thousand years, bad braved the ravages of 
time, because they rested on their base. He preferred 
placing his own on its point, and giving for its support 
piers, formed of a continually increasing number of 
bayonets. A storm proceeding from the North over- 
turned the building, and buried the architect under its 
ruins. The error, evident in the construction of this 
edifice, was as much for the want of a foundation, as a 
supposition that its events would only be such as occnr 
in the ordinary course of nature ; and an expectation 
that, at least, it would have sunk in a less violent, 
though, in good truth, a manner no less certain. 

We have taken great care to distinguish the divi- 
sions of Europe into two confederations ; the one con- 
tinental, the other maritime. These for the future form 
the pivot of her policy. Correctly speaking, Europe 
in its present state has only three great interests : 

First ; To disarm and destroy tfie military spirit, 
/ Second ; To confirm good order in France. 

Third ; To terminate the troubles of Spanish Ame- 
rica, by the emancipation of that country. 

The two first objects will form the safety of Europe; 
the latter its wealth. To become quiet, it is necessary 
she should repossess herself of her wealth, and repair 
the losses occasioned by the disorders of the past twen- 
ty-five years. Men contented with their lot, gradually 
advancing towards a happier futurity, will be more ea- 
sily governed than those interdicted from alleviating the 



Preface. xv 

feelings of past losses, by the hope of there being a pe- 
riod to their privations and their siiiferings. 

It is satisfactory to think, that, with the exception of 
these events, which surpass all belief because they sur- 
pass all sort of calculation, nothing appears to prevent 
our announcing to Europe that this is the commence- 
ment of a prolonged scene of repose. We may say 
that the contentious matter is exhausted. Every thing 
is regulated. On the other hand, Europe is protected 
from every attempt at extensive conquest. In three hun- 
dred years it has suffered under three enterprises of 
this nature. One by Spain under Charles the Fifth 
and Philip the Second. By France, under Louis the 
Fourteenth and Napoleon. All have had equal suc- 
cess, and have terminated by plunging the two coun- 
tries into an abyss, which they will for a long time bear 
in mind. Hence, Europe may be disarmed ; may re- 
turn to her civil state, and relieve her inhabitants from 
the burden of immense armies ; the estahlisiiraent of 
which exhausts the wealth of its people, and the spirit 
of which is only calculated to extinguish that of liberty. 

We may also remark, as a circumstance favourable 
to the maintenance of peace, that there prevails such an 
uniformity of age among the sovereigns who have con- 
curred in its conclusion, as to enable us to hope that 
the same hands which have contributed to establish, 
will for a long time continue to preserve it. This cor- 
respondence of age will prevent those sudden transi- 
tions from one system to another, that too often distin- 
guish the changes in a reign ; for, to succeed to the 
same situation is not to succeed to the same ideas and 
the same inclinations. We may also congratulate our- 
selves on being able to think, that these princes are 
equally induced by their own virtues, as the interests 
of their states, to consolidate this sreat work. 



THE 



CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 



CHAPTER I. 

Preliminaries of the Congress, 

The thirty.first day of March 1814 ! A day that 
will he memorable to eternity ! No longer did Madrid, 
Vienna, Berlin, Warsaw, behold their former masters 
flying, and their conquerors planting their ensigns on 
their battered and degraded walls. The thunder has 
returned to peal over those places whence, for the past 
twenty years, it has never ceased to issue. In its turn, 
Paris has received its conquerors. They entered into 
the city that had conveyed terror, with its decrees, into 
every empire. He who for a long time had burst froni 
the capital with the rapidity of the eagle and the strength 
of the lion, in order to seize, either as an easy prey, or 
as a trembling victim, every people in Europe, tamely 
submitted to the triumphant entry of the enemies he had 
produced, and whom he was less able to deceive thaii 
to conquer. He approached near enough to hear the 
cries that distinguished the overthrow of his throne- 
silent and pale, he separated himself from the city he 
knew not how to defend, and which, for the happiaesg 
of Fiance, he ought never to have revisited. 

Similar to the condition of a man relieved of a most 
oppressive load, Europe gave a long sigh, and began to 
breathe. Henceforward, all the revolutionary policyj, 

G 



18 Congress of Vienna, 

which had been established with such difficulty, disap- 
peared, like the decorations of a theatre. In an instant, 
from Hamburgh to Rome, the marks of the new go- 
vernment are effaced ; the former ones are brought for- 
ward; the ill-assorted ties uniting twenty various na- 
tions, formed by violence, burst of their own accord. 
Then sovereigns re-entered the palaces where acclama- 
tions, of which they were no longer objects, had but 
recently resounded. Never had there been witnessed 
such a scene — one day changing the face of the whole 
world, and destroying the work of twenty ages ; for in 
the revolutionary scale, it is not by years, but by ages, 
that we are to reckon. France, that has occasioned all 
this subversion, must be first quieted. This great body 
must be fixed, in order that Europe shall not vacillate: 
so much, even in its fall, does it preserve its influence. 
A treaty recalled this country to its ancient possessions, 
and there it remained. But all that the war had affect- 
ed, and what has it not affected ? was to be regulated. 
The one sought for spoils ; the other found itself too 
weak for its more powerful neighbour. Here the situa- 
tion was vacant : there many disputed it. One implored 
an indemnity for the past ; another showed the dangers 
of the future. On all sides were heard cries of justice, 
indemnity, peace, and the balance of power. Who was 
to organise this chaos, and oppose a barrier to this tor- 
rent of pretension? Arms had produced their effect. It 
remained for policy to avail itself of their operations and 
complete the work ; or, in the words of the Homan ora- 
-. tor, Cedant arma togce. Vienna is to become the noble 
\ tlieatre of the most expanded and generous patriotism 
/ that ever existed ; for it embraced Europe — through it, 
/ the universe. Already has the scene commenced ; and 
this august assemblage will take place, after the short 
space of time of which the sovereigns had made use to 
revisit those places whence the cares of war had so long 
withdrawn their attention. For in our days, as in those 
of the Crusades, war has brought sovereigns into the 
field. At last the hour arrived, and pleasures, inter- 



Congress of Vienna, 19 

preted as sincere pledges of mutually benevolent dispo- 
sitions, gaily introduced tliese arbiters of tbe destinies 
of Europe into the sanctuary where they were to be 
decided. The Congress was opened. 



CHAPTER II. 

Me-appearance of Diplomacy. 

Here Europe discovered that which it had for a long 
time lost — diplomacy re-appeared. 

It had for ages afforded to those distinguished in its 
services the exalted honours reserved in all countries for 
the most eminent personages. The names of celebrated 
negotiators are united, in history and the archives of 
nations, with those who have rendered them the most 
illustrious. Men who have defended the interests of the 
state by the extent, the force, the suppleness of their 
talents, may place themselves, without fear, in the same 
rank with those who have exerted their valour in the 
field ; and their wise combinations have not obtained 
less honour, or had a less right to the admiration of 
mankind, because they have not possessed an eclat so 
brilliant as the successful efforts of the warrior. Often, 
nay, almost always, the latter has been but the instru- 
ment of diplomacy, the agent of the statesman. 

Since the peace made between the Convention (of 
France) and the powers of Europe in 1795, and which 
was signed by Count Carletti, in the name of the Grand 
Duke of Tuscany, there have been no real negotiations 
in Europe. We have seen stipulations, acts signed, 
truces clothed with the name and deceitful appearance 



so Congress of Vienna. 

of peace s but there have been none of those negotiations 
to which Europe had been so long accustomed. Strength 
was too much on one side — weakness too marked on the 
other. Dangers too imminent, too grave, to constitute 
that species of discussion, to be termed diplomacy. It 
exists only among equals. Hence, what equality can be 
found with those who have the power of taking every 
thing, and those who can retain nothing ; between those 
who have lost all, or almost all, and those who have 
obtained everything; between those who painfully de- 
fend a mere wreck, and those who command in the capi- 
tal of the sovereign with whom they treat, who occupy 
his states, and make use of their resources to supply 
their wants, with as little discretion as fear? Thus have 
all the negotiations been characterised for the past twen- 
ty years — negotiations in which the Gauls have always 
put tiieir swords into one of the scales. In short, all 
these treaties have been traced by the sword. 

After a lapse of eighteen hundred years, we have seen 
Europe return to that state of things established in 
Rome, in which the conquered, at the feet of the con- 
queror, received what was convenient for him to let re- 
main, and what he was neither able to take nor distri- 
bute. A little more, and even this limit would have 
been over-stepped. The Congress of yienna will stop 
these invasions of force ; it will banish these Roman 
prai-tices ; it will re-establish those humane habits that 
have governed Europe ; and, in the silence of arms, 
reason will he heard. 

Surely, after so many years of distress and violence, 
of attacks without motives, of battles without end, of 
convulsions without result, of transactions without unity 
or solidity, without a guarantee for their duration, it is an 
imposing spectacle to see the senate of Europe assembled 
under its most powerful and august chiefs, formed by all 
the names whom policy recommends to the public con- 
fidence; of all those wlio, having known how to cut the 
Oordian knot of the power of Napoleon, will not find it 
difficult to unravel the thread of the labyrinth in which 



Congress of Vienna. SI 

his policy lias bewildered them. Many other difficul- 
culties have been overcome ; and surely it is nearer from 
Paris to Vienna, than from Moscow to Paris. 



CHAPTER III. 

Object of the Congress. 



But on what subject, I could almost say on what ma- 7 
terials, will this Congress begin to work? Oa,,a new j 
worJLd. Twenty-five years have changed every thing. ^ 
Seek no longer in Europe for the men who once were | 
there, who agitated it, and who shone in more recent ^ 
epochas. All is passed. From the pole, to that deli- 
cious climate inhabited by the children of great Greece, 
discover, if you are able, what existed in those daysj, of 
which the twilight is scarcely extinct. What is become 
of thou, son of Vasa? What is this new crown, which, 
taken from tlie forehead of Margaret of Waldemar, is 
united with yours, on that of a successor, that in your 
time 3'ou would not have acknowledged? Why is on© 
part of Scandinavia detached from the sceptre of Chris- 
tian, which it cherished, and separated from him by 
new laws, as it is by its shores ? What are the cries 
and tears that resound and flow around this king, whose 
possessions would for ever have remained inviolablcj, 
if virtue would have been sufficient to defend men? 
Whom have ye offended, countries of Jagellon and So> 
bieski? Into what hands will your wrecks fall, uncer- 
tain of a place of repose ? And thou, throne of the C{e= 
sars, consecrated by immortal recollections, prolonged 
by the respect of ages, a veneration for whom has sur- 
vived their power, how has it happened that you are not 
occupied by your former possessor? What are the new 
majesties, the recent sovereignties that have replaced so- 



S;3 Cong^^ess of Vienna. 

vereiSjiities, still more recent in the bosom of Germany ? 
The Rhine no longer flows under its ancient laws. The 
division that religion created between the Belgians and 
the Bataviaiis, approaches its term. Amsterdam and 
Brussels reassume the ties of their ancient fraternity 
under the same sceptre. Venice, notwithstanding its 
ancient wisdom, has disappeared. Austria, not the 
Adriatic, has swallowed it. Italy had scarcely tasted 
the cup of independence, and already has the Austrian 
eagle pounced upon her. Genoa will not see its doges 
at Versailles ; still more astonished to behold them- 
selves there than of all the wonders of their pompous 
residence. For the future she will receive her laws 
from Turin; her groans will not be understood; her 
complaints will not be heard. Naples was a long time 
astonished by its new master. For many years Sicily 
remained separate from Italy, as in the days of Syra- 
cuse and Hiero. Ask not the Isle of Elba for that 
which it possessed, nor why Europe has demanded, in 
the solitudes of the ocean, a more secure depositary. 
Lisbon asks Brazil to terminate her widowhood. The 
new has began to draw kings from the old world : soon 
will it furnish them itself from among its own chil- 
dren. There thrones are not wanting. The feeble 
bonds that unite the vast America with its rigorous and 
distant metropolis, are bursting. Throughout this new 
soil the cry of liberty is heard. Mexico communicates 
with Peru. It resounds in this immense continent, that 
the ocean encloses in its at once tumultuous and tran- 
quil waves. All is agitation and bustle : they cast off 
the leading strings of their political childhood. Na- 
ture acts agreeably to its eternal laws, and America, 
become adolescent, escapes from a decrepid and deso- 
lated mother, like robust youth from the tutelage of 
their infantine days. 

The errors of the revolution have spared nothing, and 
' it is on the ruins heaped up by inexorable fate that the 
Congress should begin its work. 

But it would require little trouble to depict the polL 



Congress of Vienna. 33 

tical changes produced in this age of convulsions ; or, 
to use the expression, that it has sown on the face of 
the globe. It exists still more in the dispositions of the 
mind. The moral infinitely surpasses the political re- 
volution. Above all, it has surpassed it in extent and 
duration. For, in fact, whatever may be the latitude of 
the changes that aifect the latter, there are certain limits 
and bounds in its mode of application ; whereas tha 
changes that affect the moral faculties naturally aug- 
ment and know no other limits than those of the hu- 
man mind. To these none can be affixed. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Division of Europe into tiao Zones. 

At the period of the restoration, Europe, if the ex= 
pression may be permitted, appeared to be divided into 
two zones : each mingled in the contest. The people, 
of the north and of the south all partook of the strife, 
and endeavoured to bring it to a conclusion. But, ifc 
may be said that the sovereigns of these two divisions 
were differently inspired, and had different objects ia 
view. 

On one side we beheld the sovereigns of the north and 
of Germany, themselves conducting their legions to- 
wards Paris, which they at last gained, as the period 
and price of a sanguinary contest, in which all might 
have been lost, had calculations been made upon sea- 
sons, dangers, fatigues, and, I may say, sacrifices. 

On the other hand, the possesses of those thrones 
that the fall of that of Napoleon had restored, and 
even brought forth by an action of the feame spring, be- 
held themselves reinvested witliout anv other trouble 



^4< Congress of Vienna. 

tlian going; from the seat of their exile to that of their 
power. One half of Europe was transferred to the 
other on the throne, without any effort on the part of the 
latter. It is here that we see the difference of disposi- 
tion hetween those who give and those who receive. 

Hence, sovereigns tvho we may believe to have been 
exasperated by the greatness of the losses they have 
sustained, the grossness of the outrages they have expe- 
rienced, by the length and impetuosity of the contest, 
speak only of liberty for the |ieople, of clemency for in- 
dividuals, of the forgetfulness of the injuries they have 
suffered ; but of wishes for the approximation of minds. 
They have only conquered for the triumph of clemency; 
and behold princes, that the chance of events have re- 
placed on their thrones, as if they had never been re- 
moved, who have taken a part neither in the dangers 
nor the labour of the scenes of which they have reaped 
the advantage. Scarcely in possession of power, than 
here have they attributed it to force alone ; there they 
seem to consider it but an emanation of it, and declare 
themselves its source ; elsewhere, they pretend that a 
breath from their lips will occasion every thing to dis^ 
appear that has been ardently cherished during the 
course of a revolution that has occupied the quarter of 
a century, and which has been as various in its appear- 
ances, as it has been rapid in its progress. 

If ever a country deserved good treatment, and that 
its king should wholly devote himself to its happiness, 
surely it was Spain. What devotion ! What patience! 
What blood ! And what the reward — the Inquisition, 
and all the terror it inspires — the return of all the mo- 
nastic instituiions, from which the spirit of the times 
has taken the force that the barbaric ages could alone 
have coramunicated them, and that nothing will be again 
able to give to them. Exile, corfiscation by the hands 
of avarice, the separation and the tears of families, and, 
thatwhieh cannot fail to follow, the dilapidation of the 
public stock, which, in scenes of violence and gloom, 
uniformly disappear. 



Congress of Vienna. 2o 

Europe contemplates with horror that fatal contempt 
which induces a young prince to attempt an apology for 
its oppressor, and permits those cries to be heard which 
comhine to occasion a regret that it should have con- 
tributed to restore a power so cruelly employed.* The 
first victims, those most severely treated, are precisely 
those who, inaccessible to fear and every species of se= 
duction, who fixed to the last spot of earth that should 
remain to Spain, and, by a courage of the most obsti- 
nate and unexampled character, have chased their ene= 
mies from the Spanish soil, and to restore a prince who 
weighs them down with the very hand whose fetters 
these very mf?n broke into pieces. Doubtless the cortes 
gave umbrage, and took prcrantinns against the royal 
authority. Doubtless they have removed a part of the 
power necessary for the good of the people; but was 
not this measure necessary for the real benefit of Spain? 
But what crimes are there for Spain to punish? What 
occasioned Spain being deprived of a constitution, a 
benefit common to all Europe, and her being aban- 
doned to the storms of those ancient doctrines that 
had already rendered her desolate, and which again 
began to rise in order to render her completely bar- 
ren '^ 

Let it not be said, that the situation of Spain left no 
other choice of government than an illiberal one, and 
that it was consonant to her intelligence and her wishes. 
To assert this, is to vilify Spain and human nature. 

Spain is calumniated if we attribute to her a want of 
generosity and intelligence, a desire for vengeance and 
intellectual darkness. On the contrary, Spain is filled 
with generous and enlightened men. We have been 
struck with the circumstance when chance led us among 
them, 

* Every thing which has been written on the subject of Spain is well 
known. Wo will not allude to the language of the opposition in England; 
Ihey rarely confine themselves within limits. But we cannot reject the tes- 
timony of Lord Castlereagh. He has termed the conduct of the one party 

to the other in Spain, "■ Binffusting proceedings.'^ 

B 



5^6 Congress of Vienna. 

If a great number of acts of abuse have marked the 
resentment of Spain to an unjust aggression, they have 
been balanced and redeemed by a far greater number of 
acts distinguished by their humanity, generosity, and 
fidelity. In Spain, as in France, the history of the re- 
volution may be written so as to bear two aspects, that 
of virtue and vice ; and surely, if an exact account is to 
be kept, it is on the most honourable side that the ba- 
lance should incline. 

That which induces us to believe the contrary is, that, 
generally speaking, we are more struck with crime. In 
its very nature it is notorious. Virtue is silent. More- 
over, is it so astonishing that barbarity and ferocity 
should prevail in the classes that are ignorant, and pas- 
sionate because ignorant ; that excess should be com- 
mitted by the dregs of a nation, inflamed by provoca- 
tions, and intoxicated with fury? Spain lias only re- 
acted that which was done in France, when the popu- 
lace, springing as it were from the bowels of the earth, 
placed the statue of Moloch on the altar, in the public 
places, on the tribunes, with inflammatory orations, and 
chose the priests from among the lowest and most de- 
praved of mankind. Is it to be believed, that because 
she bent the knee, that France adored this disgusting 
idol ? On the contrary, have we not seen with what 
transport she has overturned and broken it into pieces, 
as soon as the mob was driven to its disgusting hiding 
places? At the departure of this cortege of barbarism, 
civilisation was reinvested with its rights. It would 
have been the same in Spain, if, instead of what has 
taken place, a call had been made on the generous 
principles that pervade the breasts of almost all Spa- 
niards, The evil has arisen, because that elevation of 
sentiment common to Spaniards has not been duly ap- 
preciated. Of this we have had a fine proof; and all 
that has occurred, proves the resources to be found in 
such men. 

Let us cease to assert, that to govern thus is to govern 
with the dominant party in Spain j as if the lowest classes 



Congress of Vienna. S7 

of a nation could ever be the powerful party ; as if that 
which was constituted to obey could ever be called to 
command. 

To talk thus is to calumniate human nature, and to 
assert that government ought not to rest with virtue, but 
that it ought to remain with low, dull, vicious disposi- 
tions — a ruinous doctrine, as injurious to the honour as 
the morality of man. 

If from Spain we pass into Italy, shall we find that 
the governments restored in that country have shewn 
themselves much superior in intelligence and genero- 
sity ? 

One of them appears to think, that to hate the past, 
to bring back former times, is every thing, and suiSeient 
for the happiness of the people. There, as elsewhere, 
hatred has become the most commendable of qualities. 
Not to administer the government with a view to the 
public happiness, but to purify it after its own manner, 
appears to be the object. There also there is no idea of 
the rights of the people, nor of a constitution, called for 
hy their wants, balanced by a general council, and con- 
secrated by the safeguard of an intelligent representa- 
tion. 

What new glory awaited the sovereign pontiff, who, 
shielded by the milder and courageous virtues, had 
found means to triumph over the arm that levelled all 
before it ? Was there ever a more lively interest, were 
there ever more ardent wishes than those which accom- 
panied him to the capitol, where, differently from the 
ancient heroes in their triumphal car, this prince of 
peace ought to have conducted in chains the bickerings, 
the hatred, the love of revenge — passions that disturb 
the repose of man. Would his triumph have been less 
splendid, if on !iis triple crown had appeared that of 
universal charity ? If the common father of the greater 
part of the children of Europe, venerated even by those 
separated from his own communion, had called for a 
general reconciliation ? If he had afforded the influence 
of his mild and insinuating virtues to quell those pas- 



2S Congress of Vienna. 

sions that the times had aroused ? It seemed that this 
part, poiiited out by the very nature of his good quali- 
ties, had been reserved for him as their price. The pope, 
oftering his hand to those that had offended him, de- 
prived vengeance of apology. It was Constantine re- 
pelling the solicitations for avenging the insults offered 
to his statues, by these admirably simple expressions : 
^'I am not wounded." Instead of this, what have we 
beheld? Some princes of the church citing before their 
tribunal other princes of the same church ; the grave 
restoring with regret a society said to he re-deraanded. 
by the whole Christian, while it was repulsed by all 
the social, world. What prince is there that would not 
have found himself more dependent at the appearance 
of these phantoms that had, for a length of time, in- 
sinuated themselves among the secret springs (tf govern- 
ment? What father did not feel himself less the master 
of his family at the announcement of this strange resur- 
rection ?* 

From one end of Europe to the other, religion has 
exhibited her complaints, and most pressingly implored 
succours. The time was occupied on the subject of the 
inquisition and the free masons. The religious edifice 
tottered on all sides, and it was the return of the monks, 

* Montesquieu, speaking of the Jesuits, observes, " ihat they view the 
pleasure of domination as the chief good of life." — Spirit of Laws, Vol. I. 
book iv. chap. vi. 

This is a pleasure that this society enjoyed for a century. While it ha- 
rassed France, it is singular enough that it made some happy efforts to 
carry civilisation into the American colonies. Its true glory consists in its 
missionaries, its preachers, and its professors. In this triple career, its place 
has not been filled up. 

It is said, that the revolution would not have happened if the Jesuits had 
still existed. Is this assertion founded ? Have not the men accused of putting 
in motion or preparing the way for the revolation, been for the most part 
educated in the colleges of the Jesuits ? It would be unfair to conclude, that 
from them they have imbibed the ideas. This is far from our intention. But 
the education of these establishments, with all the advantages that must be 
allowed them, were not sufficient to arm men sufficiently strong to resist 
the torrent of innovation. Hence, we may conclude, that it would have been 
inefficacious in our times. 



Congress of Vienna. 29 

saifl to be its ornaments, that occupied the attention. 
The south of Europe prosecuted, as the pest of society, 
these associations, which in other countries were only 
objects of amusement and curiosity, and which the sons 
of liings honoured with their connexion. The corals of 
the north became the terror of the south. Let us turn 
our eyes from this picture, one which we never wished 
to have contemplated. 

If we return to France, shall we be more satisfied ? 
A nation still labouring under the pangs of a severe 
and bloody contest of twenty-five years' duration ; 
more proud of, than intimidated by, its wounds ; not 
forgetful of its errors, but unwilling to be reproached 
for them ; almost wholly grown up amidst these new 
doctrines ; for the most part ignorant of the character 
of the masters that chance has restored to her ; expect- 
ing every thing, and fearing nothing, from them : in. 
such an attitude, a nation forbids the exercise of discre- 
tion. 

Had she a charter, but without her immediate parti- 
cipation — she possessed it, but not in virtue of an ac= 
knowledged right. And when she prepared herself to 
enjoy its fruits, new convulsions retarded this happy 
time, and compelled her to trust to the future for the 
amelioration of the laws destined to ameliorate her^ 
self.* 



* In the kingfdom of the Low Countries the fundamental act was pro- 
posed for the investigation and acceptance of the notables. The same cir- 
cumstance occurred in Holland, when the Prince of Oi-ange wished to give 
it a constitution, after the recovery of that country. He assembled a nu- 
merous body, the object of which was to discuss and accept the proposed 
charter. 

The King of Prussia went still farther. Crowned by victory, after three 
years of exertion, that had re-established his throne in all its splendour, he 
has of his own accord ordered the plan of a constitution, which has for its 
object the greatest extension of the liberty of his subjects. There is no 
Prussian that will not be called upon to deliberate and pronounce for its 
acceptance or rejection. It is to be examined and discussed at Berlin, in 
an assembly formed of the most distinguished men among the public func= 
tionai'iesj and the principal inhabitants of tlje monarchy. There does not 



30 Congress of Vienna. 

It appeared that the general tendency of the conduct 
of the southern sovereiii;ns, had for its object power, as 
the inherent right of the prince, that every thing was 
made to assimilate with this idea, and every attentiou 
was paid in order To establish it as a principle, before 
which all considerations of the public service were to 
bend. Above all, it appears that it was intended gene- 
rally to efface the remembrance even of the twenty-five 
|)ast years, and that it was wished tliat they should not 
confine themselves to banish them altogether from his- 
tory, after the example of the mose. of Chantilly, but 
to leave the pages blank in history itself. 

The northern princes, who have been either establish- 
ed or re-established, have done nothing similar ; and, it 
is much to be regretted, that detaching themselves from 
the ideas, otherwise so correct, of that independence 
which belongs to each sovereign, those of the north, 
the saviours of those of the south, have not, in virtue 
of the right that the restoration has given them, assum- 
ed the initiative of general conduct and general direc- 
tion ; and that, on an occasion when it influenced not 
merely the dignity of some men, but the safety of all, 
that they should not have chalked out a path not con- 
ducting us so immediately to new precipices. 

The error of this great omission has already cost the 

exist in history a greater trait of generosity. It only wants to be removed 
from us by tlie lapse of ages, to excite universal admiration. 

The King of WUrtemberg h^s proposed a new constitution to his states. 
They have rejected it. The contest still continues. 

The states have called for the interference of the powers guaranteeing 
the constitution of the country. Their address is very curious. We there 
find that the king has given them such a constitution as he has thought pro- 
per, and added modifications that circumstances required. Such is the na- 
ture of the complaint made by the states. 

This state paper is still more i-emarkable, by the guarantee given to 
the former constitution of WUrtemberg by three powers. How can fo- 
reigners guarantee the constitution of a country ? We know what has 
happened in Poland, when it had a constitution guaranteed by three of its 
neighbours. 

What would the English say if it was proposed to them to guarantee 
their constitution ? 



Congress of Vienna. 31 

whole world dear. It furnished an opening for the re- 
turn of Napoleon, attracted rather by his knowledge 
of the interior state of Francefc than called by the ma- 
chinations of his accomplices. Those who contributed 
to the restoration, ought to have seen how it was em- 
ployed. 

It is worthy of remark, that princes, remounting 
their thrones, in a manner as sudden as it was unex- 
pected, did not consider themselves as united in their 
views, and establish a concert among themselves that 
would have afforded much assistance to each. As great 
an error as that into which we fall when we commit 
one blunder without reference to another ; that the des- 
potism established in Spain should not dread the liber- 
ty of other countries ; that Italy should cover herself 
with inquisitors and Jesuits, forgetting that elsewhere 
she had seen these phantoms reassume possession of 
the soil ! Hence an unfortunate opinion is formed, bor- 
dering on distrustj interpreting every thing in an unfa- 
vourable sense, and calculated to facilitate the attacks 
which might be made on an edifice already sapped bj 
a concomitance of causes, the injustice or futility of 
which did not preserve them from dangerous conse- 
quences.* 

* The Court of Naples magnanimously declared itself opposed to a 
system of reaction, and Naples has not been persecuted by a spectacle, 
similar to that of which, a diiferent plan had rendered it the theatre in 
2r99. 

The Court of Florence has conducted itself in that mild and liberal man- 
ner, characterising' a government truly paternal. It is said, that, since the 
age of the Medicis, there is something in the air of Tuscany, which only 
disposes the hearts of men to sensations of mildaess and mutual benevo- 
lence. 

The second return of the pope to Rome, and his restoration to the three 
legations, have been distinguished with that moderation well calculated to 
ensure the tranquillity of these countries. We cannot but congratulate our- 
selves on the general direction of the affairs intrusted to Cardinal Gonsalvij 
one of the most moderate and enligiitened statesmen in Europe. Austria 
does not appear to recollect that a revolution of many years had happened 
in her Italian states. For this moderation she will be rewarded by many 
years of tranquillity. 



33 Congress of Vienna. 



CHAPTER V. 

The new state of JSTations. 



^^ IT is not the coalition which has dethroned me : 
liberal ideas have effected it/' said Napoleon, on his 
departure for Elba.* Princes ! people ! hear ! The 
destiny of all of you is included in this sentence. 

Behold him acknowledging, that, for having outrag- 
ed the civilised feelings of his age, he, who of all men 
had it in his power to triumph over them, if this fright- 
ful privilege were given to any one among us, had lost 
his throne. 

Believe his words, because they are those of a maa 
who never was equalled in sagacity ; because they are 
those of a man who was never surpassed in self4ove ; 
who was merely led to the confession by the conviction, 
of the irremediable consequences of his error. ^' Ihave 
sinned against liberal ideas, and I die.'' Behold the 
will, the amende honorable of the greatest warrior, of 
the most powerful monarch, that ever appeared on the 
vast theatre of the world. He overturned, he subdued 
every thing, people and sovereigns ; but, destitute of 
liberal ideas, he perished. 

Learn from this the power of civilisation, the natural 
tendency of the information of the age, the spirit which 

* At the same time he said, " / cannot re-establish myself, I have offended 
the people." 

We have seen with what alacrity foreign nations have advanced against 
him, and whole countries have abandoned him ! After experiencing' such 
grandeur,he finds himself alone for having offended the world! 



Congress of Vienna, 33 

impels and directs every thing, yon who, whatever title 
you bear, govern and instruct mankind ; for, princes or 
professors! it is empire, whatever name it bears, on 
which it operates. Be careful of what you say, as well 
as of what you do; for contempt is sure to be followed 
by dangerous consequences. 

Whence arises this circumstance? From the rapid 
strides that the human race has made within one hun- 
dred years. Nothing is to be recognised which existed 
previous to that epoch. The soil has remained, but a 
new race has inhabited it. It remains under the same 
sky ; but under the domination of a different mind. 

In its turn, each people have shone in the world. In 
its turn, each sentiment has enjoyed a period of influ- 
ence. If we trace the march of human nature, war^ 
religion, have formed the principal occupation of na» 
tions. Little else is to be found in the pages of history. 
The round of civilisation is at last complete. No one 
can assume peculiar honour; each has furnished his 
contingent. 

As soon as a communication of the arts, of language^ 
of travel, of correspondence, of commerce commenced, 
the character of mankind underwent a change. Shut up 
within themselves, their domestic affairs alone excited 
their attention, obtained their admiration, and called 
forth their applause. There were no objects of com= 
parison. Since this period, nations communicating one 
with another have been struck with objects hitherto un- 
known to them, and their minds have been expanded. 
Then commenced with them, as with children, a period 
of age and instruction. Heretofgre, their attention had 
been divided among a multiplicity of objects, of the na» 
ture of which they scarcely had been aware. They gave 
themselves up to new discussions. Things have been 
elevated, enlarged, while men have diminished them in 
proportion. Discussions of right took place of discus- 
sions of fact. By the natural progression of ideas, they 
no longer confined themselves to a knowledge of the 

E 



^^4i Congress of Vienna, 

laws under which they lived, but have endeavoured to 
learn the spirit of those laws. They have even ques- 
tioned the nature of the laws themselves, and have gone 
so far as to demand whether or not they were founded 
injustice? 

Arrived at this point, the world assumed a different 
appearance. As has uniformly happened, powerful 
geniuses appeared, and possessed themselves of the 
new arena. Their intelligence, that at other times 
would have heen exhausted in questions of fact and 
mere abstraction, has been rendered useful in the exa- 
mination of questions vitally important to humanity. 
After the manner of genius, these writers dived into 
the nature of principles, and found themselves firmly 
established in exalted situations. The remainder of 
society followed in their train. Opinions extended them- 
selves every where, were circulated and confirmed. It 
would have been as ridiculous to have appeared under 
other colours, as to have assumed a dress forbidden by 
the taste of the day. The communications established 
between nations served as the vehicle of change. A 
new language was introducled among all classes. The 
re-discovered titles of the human race became the chan- 
nels of the rising generation. After a lapse of five 
thousand years, the world has learned that it no longer 
belongs to masters. Hence, the contract binding all 
human society has been dated from this period ; and the 
nature of the ancient sovereignties have been altogether 
changed. 

If there can be any doubt entertained of this general 
tendency of opinion in Europe, it is only necessary to 
examine the writings of the past sixty years ; — to be- 
hold, whatever are the subjects to the elucidation of 
which they have been directed, that in their career 
the authors have acquired glory ; — to recollect the 
school to which Catherine and Frederick were attach- 
ed, and the applauses those illustrious monarchs re- 
ceived. 



Congress of Vienna. 35 

Doubtless all their works do not bear the same stamp, 
nor the same grandeur of character, nor are they re- 
commended by the same merit in their execution; but 
all have a similar tendency. We need not add to that 
union which already exists; a union which, like the 
instruments of a concert, cannot be heard without be- 
ing distinguished. The education of all nations thus 
found itself suddenly completed. Formerly they un- 
derstood without speaking; now, by means of the re- 
volution, for twenty-five years they have been taught 
to speak. This terrible interpreter has frightened, but 
not separated, them. Hence, as in most cases, justice 
has been done. That which it possessed of barbarisnij, 
and a contempt of the rights of the people, and which 
inspired horror, has been rejected. The good which it 
contained, and which was productive of beneiit to the 
people, has floated, been gathered up, and now remains 
among the treasures of nations. 

The revolution only gave despots to France; Civili- 
sation has destroyed despotism in Europe. But, above 
all, it has brought constitutions to light, and occasion- 
ed the want of them to be universally felt. The revo- 
lution gave twenty years of war to Europe. It has 
pressed the deceiving delusions accompanying it far- 
ther than they ought to have been carried. Civilisation, 
in conferring honour on generous warriors, brought 
war into disrepute. For the future it has rendered im- 
practicable the character which hitherto has been the 
most seducing, the most alluring, toman; that of con- 
queror, is for the future rendered unattainable. It has 
banished it to Tartary. Barbarism burned Moscow- 
civilisation preserved Paris. The revolution banished 
commerce, to place it under the yoke of power and 
war. Civilisation, spreading its wings, has dismissed 
its gaolers and opened its prison. The revolution paid 
no regard to religion. Civilisation has fully confirmed 
the feeling which convinces us of the want of a mild 
and tolerant religion ; the protectress of order, in its 
social and domestic state. Civilisation has served as a 



j- 



} 



36 Cotigress of Vienna. 

(safeguard for the world in the terrible career that it has 
ran : tliroiigh it, and with the assistance of beneficent 
artS) of methods, more appropriate to the preservation 
of men, the scythe of death, that nothing can wholly 
destroy, has been in a small measure blunted. Popu- 
lation has been extricated from all the pits into which 
war had precipitated it for twenty years. It is to obey 
the dictates oi" civilisation, that men have been uniform- 
ly engaged in impelling their battalions on their ene- 
mies, calling forth the arts, raising monuments, appro- 
priating those of genius to the decorations of their coun- 
try — destroyers on the one hand, restorers on the other. 
On one side they appeared to labour, to efface the out- 
rages which, on the other, they committed against civi- 
lisation ; and thus acknowledging that they could not 
support themselves without its assistance. 

We cannot but condemn tliat blind hatred that in- 
duces people to regard all the chiefs of the revolution 
as enemies of civilisation. However they may have 
conducted themselves on other points, to it they have 
always been obliged to have recourse ; and the instant 
they deserted it, they have perished. Robespierre fell 
when he had made France a field of civil carnage, and 
had completed the effectual banishment of civilisation. 
Napoleon, who in no point of view is to be compared 
with him, perished in his turn, when he made Eu- 
rope a field of military carnage ; when he wished to 
form a civilisation of his own, or rather to render it his 
slave. 

The spectacle offered by this potentate is very strange. 
Covering with monuments of the boldest and most 
exquisite character every land that he visited; convey- 
ing to the learned honours and fortune as useless as 
they were unprecedented ; erecting the mofst learned 
polytechnic schools in the universe ; and all in order 
that the same men whom he had armed with all the 
means of science and of art, should increase the pro- 
gress of the human mind, and acquire this mass of 
power^ but to lay it at his feet ; but to be silent for 



Congress of Vienna. 37 

eighteen years, and confine themselves to composing 
hymns in his praise. 

The Turks, with their gross ignorance, which they 
apply to every thing, look more to results. 

But the reward of blind temerity was not expected. 
The explosion of compressed light lias overturned the 
author of this anti-social system. The electrical ma- 
chine has given a fatal shock — the inexpert mechanic 
was ignorant of its springs and its play. By his fall, 
he learned that light shines at all times, and is quite as 
apt to be the means of an overthrow, as instrumental 
to our comforts. 

In the midst of the world this terrible machine is 
established. To destroy it is impossible. We can 
only direct its operations. 

If men should be afflicted with this truth, let them 
console themselves by looking more closely at it. They 
will find that that which agrees better with others, is 
also that which agrees better with themselves ; that it 
is to these lights which they would so boldly extinguish, 
that they hitherto owe their preservation, and that they 
still may be preserved : and finally, that it is but in di- 
rect and good roads that they run no risk of precipices 
and robbers ! 

Nationality, truth, publicity ! Behold the three flags 
under which the world for the future is to marchc 
Misfortune will attend those who will not inlist under 
them. 

The people have acquired a knowledge of their 
rights and dignity. They know that they are the prin- 
ciple and object of society, and of its exertions ; that 
they do not exist for a few individuals, but that indivi- 
duals exist for them. 

More than a century ago, Fenelon uttered this truthj, 
which but for him would never have been heard. It is 
known now, and it is to a pontiff educated in the 
most idolatrous court of his king, that the world owes 
the pablleation of this maxim^ the most important 



38 Congress of Vienna. 

ever heard^ and which has now become common pro- 
perty. 

Hence, every thing should comport with the happi- 
ness of nations. But how is this to be effected ? I5y 
them or by others? Will nations resemble indolent 
proprietors, who commit the charge of their affairs to 
other hands ? Because they have done so hitherto, 
will they do so always ? 

Therefore the necessity of a government which will 
permit nations to interfere in their own affairs and take 
au immediate cognisance of them ; that in due time 
they should determine the forms arising from the varie- 
ties that distinguish different people. That this inter- 
ference should e'xist is indispensable. 

What are its guarantees? Truth and publicity. 
To claim them is to ask for that which cannot be refus» 
ed : that which inevitably exists in all polished coun- 
tries. Otherwise, after all that has passed, is it possi- 
ble for men to be deceived? Deceive them ! For how 
long? To hide even for a moment! for with the mul- 
titude of eyes that are open to public events, how is it 
to be expected that the mystery of to-day will not be ex- 
posed in the public squares to-morrow? Daylight has 
burst into all cabinets. Their proceedings are read 
through walls, through the most secret despatches ; and 
the wings lent them by their couriers add but to their 
publicity. Europe is covered with a population of 
readers, of writers, of men accustomed, some to ma- 
nage affairs, others to provide and become instrumental 
to the increase and care of their fortune. Society is a 
species of tribune that does not remain empty, and who 
can flatter themselves with changing men possessed of 
so many means of knowing and understanding every 
thing? If they cannot be deceived, still less can any 
thing be concealed. That which is not published in 
one country is sure to be so in another ; and while there 
is a parliament in England, there will be a tribune for 
ail Europe. Bat what would be the fruit of this conceal- 



Congress of Vienna. 39 

ment? That which was gathered by Napoleon-— a 
general incredulity. In the actual state of the mind 
of man, every thing that does not appear clear occa- 
sions distrust. They have been so deceived, that 
they have adopted a system of incredulity, against 
even what is uttered and established by authority. A 
giant of falsehood elevated himself in France ; he 
made use of deceptions to establish his power. Well ! 
be was unable to establish one. They were all con- 
tradicted by truths, the escape of which could not ba 
prevented. Its evidence was disputed ; and the man 
wlio could make every body obey him, could make no 
one believe him. Men, driven from the domains of 
truth, seek refuge in those of imagination. There on- 
ly can they reach. 

It may be calculated that there are in France four 
millions of men, who, by education, profession, and 
fortune, can pay an attention to public affairs. It is 
proper to deduct from this number one hundred thou- 
sand persons, whose personal feelings render them will- 
ing to afford confidence to the authority that speaks. 
All the rest are on the alert. And, nevertheless, this 
population represents the manly and active part of tha 
nation, and that which inSuences its motives. It fills 
almost all the inferior ranks of public administration. 
It serves it with eyes and vtith hands. It directs the 
interests of all the citizens, and by means of commerce 
it provides for their wants. This class is more nume- 
rous in the states of the North, among whom the first 
classes have less social consistence than in France. 
These are the classes that, in foreign countries as well 
as in France, have sapped the power of Napoleon ; in 
France, by separating the people from him; in G^erma- 
ny, by raising them against him. 

Therefore the relations of governments with the peo- 
ple are changed. Nations are become more enlighten- 
ed, and consequently stronger than the governments. 
Hitherto it has been directly the reverse^ Then the 



40 Congress of Vienna. 

light came only from above; now it flows in on all 
sides.* 

Governments act only according to their own intelli- 
gence — nations with that of the mass. On what side 
rests the advantage? It is that which we must acknow- 
ledge, because a proof of it has just been afforded. It 
is the people that have redressed the governments, and 
have forced them to rouse themselves. Falling one af- 
ter another, they had almost all sunk at the feet of Na- 
poleon ; they humiliated themselves— the nations trera- 
filed— a refuge was sought in a concealment of the out- 
rages'—the nations burned to be avenged^ — they joined 
their flags to the troops of Napoleon- — they deserted 
his ranks, and flew into those of his enemies. Was it 
the Prussian government or the Prussian people that 
gave the signal for the German insurrection against 
France ? When General Yorck, calculating on the 
new situation of Napoleon, that of his enemies, and the 
disposition of the Prussian nation^ ^-anged himself on 
the side of the national feeling when he declared 
against France, in opposition to that of the Cahinet of 
Berlin, where were to be found intelligence and 
strength ? Of all the men of modern times, General 
Yorck has struck the most decisive blow. How many 
times would the Cabinet of Vienna have been able to 
maintain its alliance with France? The nation abjur- 
ed it. The army acted with regret. How did the Sax- 
on and other German troops act? What did the Spa- 
niards do when Ferdinand abdicated, and sought for 
the title of the adopted son of Napoleon ? 



* Montesquieu would not now say, " The prince impresses his character 
'■' on the court, the court on the city, the city on -the provinces. The soul of the 
*' sovereign is the mould luMch gives its form to all others." 

There is in this assertion an evident allusion to what passed in the time 
of Louis XIV. Montesquieu wrote in the twilight of his reign. Now we 
look to nothing but substantial things. The court does not influence the 
city, nor the city the provinces^ as much is known on one side as on the 
other. 



Congress of Vienna. 41 

Hence, it ii9 evident that there has arisen in every 
country a new power, called opinion, from the empire 
of which nothing can he taken, at the trihunal of which 
governmentH themselves incessantly appeal ; for there 
is not one of their acts which is not a request, or rather 
an appeal to this power that conducts itself mildly to 
those willing to make their submission to it, but which, 
like a torrent, swallows those who would act otherwise. 
It is this opinion which, introducing into Europe one 
change, confirms those already existing, and opens a 
road for others. This is manifestly its work. On all 
sides constitutions are established, or are promised. On 
all sides, in dividing the nearly-equal distances of the 
social contract, respect is yielded to it, and its turn is 
Come to reign. Thus is realised that which General 
Buonaparte said to the Directory in 1798, on his return 
from Campo Formio : *» The era of representative go^ 
vernment is arrived^ Therefore nations are in pos- 
session of the exercise of rights, of which, for one 
hundred years, they had not an idea. What a progress 
made by one step ! 

When these constitutions shall be established, will 
the one become the safeguard of the other? It will be 
with them as with books; to destroy one, it would be 
necessary to annihilate all the libraries and the arts 
with which the\^orld abounds. 

To how many improvements will not this comparison 
of national codes give rise? This is the most important 
event ever known, and one of those which will be most 
generally felt, and which will lay the foundation of the 
greatest benefits to society. 

This it was that produced to France all the iptelli- 
gent minds she possessed at the commencement of the 
revolution. Chance has otherwise disposed ii; but the 
thing itself is so essentially good, that after twenty-five 
years' aberrations, it is still deemed fortauate that we 
have this port of common safety. 

The natural course of things will lead to the British 
constitution. One or two examples liberally made, will 

F 



4S Congress of Vienna, 

introduce many others. Besides, how will it be possi- 
ble to prevent men, sooner or later, from becoming pos- 
sessed of it? How will it be possible to resist a dispo- 
sition which leads every one to seek what is best for 
Jiimself? If they traverse the seas to gratify the most 
frivolous taste, how are they to be interdicted from seek- 
ing that which they think of more consequence to their 
own comfort, and which is to be found at their own 
doors ? It is true, that to the titles of glory already pos- 
sessed by Great Britain, she adds another, that of le- 
gislatrix of the universe; peaceable and beneficent laws ; 
a sceptre more honourable than that which she wields 
over the ocean. This uniformity of legislation will esta- 
blish very powerful bonds of union among men. It will 
render wars less frequent and more mild. The more 
wars become national, they will be the more rare and 
the less cruel, and widely dilTerent from the ancient 
wars, between people who had no communication with 
each other. There are very few causes of war among 
nations ! When the ministers of a people shall have to 
propose the payment of the expenses of a war of which 
they cannot justify the motives, their conduct will be 
more closely canvassed. By an astonishing effect, the 
more the popular influence is increased, the higher will 
the power of the sovereign be elevated ; the more deeply 
will its foundations be placed, and the more widely 
will its branches extend. 

This Great Britain, to which we must ever refer in 
political legislation, presents at once to people and kings 
this double guarantee of their stability. What sovereign 
is more powerful than in the midst of a people associat- 
ed with him in power? The Stuarts failed, for having 
wished to monopolise it. The Brunswicks behold theirs 
increase from day to day, because they know how to 
let the nation partake of it. The Stuarts erred in wish- 
ing to act separately from the national will and national 
interests. The Brunswicks freely unite themselves with 
the people, and,' full of confidence in the princes, who 
place all confidence in them, load with their gifts those 



Congress of Vienna. 43 

whom they find connected with them in interest and in 
opinion. 

Such is the route now traced out for governments. 
There is no embarrassment as to choice — it is civilisa- 
tion that has determined it. Let them remain intimately 
connected with their people ; and, above all, not sepa- 
rate themselves from the power of knowledge. This se- 
paration is fatal to whomsoever it happens. To advance 
with the times, is like embarking on a stream that we 
can safely navigate. 

Behold the particular character of the age in which 
we live ; a character, the traits of which will every day 
be strengthened. Civilisation, that divinity, the pro- 
tectress of the human race, shall for the future cover 
all with her beneficent segis. Ask not what particular 
climes. She is every where ; she is with us in all situ- 
ations. All her acts are at once cause and effect. Do 
not seek to restrain her ; still less to banish her. It 
would be necessary to extinguish her at a blow through- 
out the world, and he who should be guilty of this great 
rashness, would hasten to recal this noble exile, and 
again seek for the benefits she communicates ; benefits 
as requisite to our moral existence as the air is to sustain 
us by its freshness, and the sun to illuminate us by his 
beams. 

Civilisation has provided, that science, which former- 
ly was the apanage of a few, should become the pro- 
perty of all. Knowledge is a common benefit. There 
is not more mind than there was formerly. We remark 
that there are fewer great geniuses. It is with them as 
with wealth. Its division affords fewer large fortunes, 
but creates a more general degree of comfort. Occu- 
pations that some men exclusively possessed an ability 
to exercise, have become common to all. How many 
men in France knew, thirt^^ years ago, what the taille 
and the gabelle produced ? Administration, and, above 
all, the finances, were an occult science, in which 
adepts were alone initiated. Now where is it hidden in 
a sanctuary ? Europe is filled with statistics; with the 



41* Congress of Vienna. 

balance of all nations. A hundred journals offer every 
day some tribute of knowledge, that is become a want 
of the first necessity, and of which, at no very distant 
period, we had not an idea. Public discussions, deli- 
berative assemblies, have communicated other concep- 
tions to the mind, and other opinions, far different to 
those that formerly occupied its attention. But a short 
time since pujiilic situations belonged exclusively to 
some classes or professions. Now, who has not been 
minister, ambassador, deputy, general, king? The 
consideration of places has, in proportion, lowered the 
number of candidates. We have seen the French at 
Grand Cairo, at Moscow, and the Russians at Paris. 
What a sensation will not the battles of Ivary and 
Bouvines excite ! It is this change, which, penetrating 
at once into all nations, by communications that unite 
them, has given them another mind, other eyes, otlier 
tastes, other inclinations; and which, throughout the 
world, induces another conduct. At the same time, 
"whatever may be said, nati(tns were never more sound 
in their judgment. It would be as impossible to esta- 
blish among them a system, destructive of their true in- 
terests, as to establish one in geometry. They have ac- 
quired so correct, so fine a tact, that if, for a short time, 
governments proceed in the wrong road, they imme- 
diately withdraw, and grve them their lesson by their 
retreat and the silence of their language. There is no 
greater error than that which induces a belief, that na- 
tions consent because they are silent. Reflect a moment, 
and you will see if it is not then that they call out the 
most loudly. It is equally certain that nations, in be- 
coming more enlightened, are not become more diffi- 
cult to govern; they only wish to be governed differ- 
ently. Do not attempt to propose the same thing to 
the wise and the ignorant man, to put the same bit into 
the mouth of the unbroken horse as into the mouth of 
one whom habit has taught to regulate his paces. In 
order easily to govern nations possessed of intelligence, 
they must be governed agreeably to their intelligence- 



Congress of Vieniiia, 45 

If you proceed in a contrary manner, they will become 
restless. Would it be possible to govern the British 
one single day in opposition to the wishes of the na- 
tion ? while, on the other hand, making use of it, the go- 
vernment is at perfect ease, as powerful at home as it is 
feared in every quarter of the globe. 



The disrepute into which liberal ideas have fallen do 
not prevent us yielding them our homage. If much er- 
ror has existed under their sanction, they have, on the 
other hand, admitted of a sober and correct applica- 
lion ; for there is not a liberal idea known that has not 
been duly acted upon within the last twenty-five years. 

Reason and justice, these two inseparable sisters, re = 
quire that we should not confound liberal ideas with 
the blunders of those who adopt them« The material 
is one thing,, the workman another. 

Those who at their ease ridicule liberal ideas, should 
think of their personal interests, and reflect, that it 
may so happen that they will not be permitted to 
laugh at them. In such a case it is prudent not to 
commence it. 



CHAPTER VI, 

Of the Political Balance of Europe in general. 

For a century past the political balance of Europe 
has been the object of the solicitude of statesmen, of 
publicists, and, we may say, that of all the thinking 
men of Europe. During this whole period there has 
not been a book written on political subjects that hag 



46 Congress of Vienna. 

not directly, or indirectly, had the political balance for 
its object, of animadversion or research. The intimate 
communication recently established among all nations, 
Las rendered this an inevitable circumstance.* 

" This system, foreseen by Henry IV. created by 
'^ Cardinal Richelieu, confirmed by the Treaty of 
*^ Westphalia, received much elucidation from King 
a William, during the course of his protracted contest 
<^ with Louis the Fourteenth. From that period to the 
" revolution, as a matter of habit and routine, it has 
^' uniformly received an attention. That event enve- 
" loped it in a general ruin, and proved the frailty of 
^^ this so much boasted edifice. 

^* There are two species of political balances. 

" The one natural and independent; the other de- 
^' pendent and factitious. 

"The first consists of a proportionate equality be- 
'^ tween states, that possess nearly an equal portion of 
" power in territory, in population, in wealth, and in 
'^ geographical position. Frequently very substantial 
" inequalities are recompensed by particular advan- 
'^ tages, and which, in fact, completely counteract them. 
" Such as between France and Great Britain ; com- 
^^ merce, a marine, and an insular position. These ad- 
*'^ vantages compensate for the relative inequality of 
^' population, of territory and military force. Whence 
''^ results a correspondence of strength, by means that 
" possess no similarity ? Thus the British fleets coun- 
'' terbalance the armies of France. They obtain by 
*^ sea advantages equal to those gained on land by 
" France. Commerce gives a wealth to Great Britain, 
*^ by which she is enabled to pay those armies she pro- 
*^ cures on the Continent to enter into a contest with 
" France. Rome and Carthage also were rivals ; but 
*^ their power and resources were not equal. Prussia 
" and Austria, Austria and Russia, Russia and Tur- 

* In this chapter, all within inverted commas is extracted from the 
" Anudote to the Congress s,t R.uistadt." By M. de Pradt, 



Congress of Vienna. 47 

^' key, have among themj notwithstanding very appa- 
" rent ineijualties, a real parity of force. This parity 
" of force has been the pledge of their independence, 
" and in it they have possessed the means of defending 
" and preserving it. The second species of balance 
" proceeds from the natural jealousies of great states 
" among themselves, of the protection they afford to 
^' smaller ones ; in fact, of the attention paid by each 
" of them to the conduct of the other, in order to pre- 
" vent those encroachments, which, if permitted, would 
" prove too advantageous for one power, and too detri- 
" mental to others. 

" France, by her population, by her industry, and 
^^ the character of her subjects ; by her position in the 
*^ centre of Europe, commanding two seas, belted with 
" a triple frontier, which almost as much isolates her 
" as she could be by the ocean ; France, with all these 
^^ advantages, really influences all her continental 
" neighbours, and fully justifies the expression of the 
" celebrated Marquis of Ormea, ^ Bo you speak of the 
^^ jwlitical balance of Eurojje,^ said this intelligent mi- 
^^ nister of Victor Amadeus ; ^ It rests with the cabinet 
" of Versailles, if it knows how to hold it.' This ex- 
^' pression says every thing: and the conquests of 
" Louis XIV. and the recent triumphs of France, suf- 
^^ ficiently prove the preponderance that this nation, 
'^ well managed, can always obtain, before K-ussia and 
" England can increase their establishments, and occu- 
^'^ py her place. 

" Spain is a species of colony for France, as well as 
" a counting-house for other nations; but she has no 
" specific weight in the balance of Europe : singly, 
'^ she can do nothing, being as powerless by land 
" against France as by sea against England." It is 
with Spain as with Turkey. Neither possess a politi- 
cal activity, and are only connected with Europe i)y a 
commerce, that both have permitted to fie carried on to 
their own disadvantage. Far from effectually coniri- 
buting to the balance of Europe, Europe, on the con- 



48 Congress of Vienna, 

trarj, is obliged to look to their preservation. Great 
Britain should always be ready to defend Spain against 
France. In the last century, Sweden, Great Britain, 
and Prussia, often exhibited a similar disposition, in 
order that they might protect Turkey against the at- 
tacks of Austria and Russia. 

" Portugal is of still less consequence in the balance 
*' of European powers. She is to be sought for at the 
" Brazils. The body of the state is there — its head only 
*^ is in Europe. Its extremities are too distant to have a 
" real existence and self-action. Hitherto this country 
*^ has not been any thing else than a commercial colony 
*^ for Great Britain : such a one as Spain has been for 
^' France.'^ The removal of the Prince Regent to the 
Brazils has altered all the relations of this country. It 
will have an immense influence on all the nations of 
JEurope. The sovereign of Portugal, who was the first 
to give the example of removing himself into another 
hemisphere, will have repeated for Europe the benefit 
that it owes to another king of that country, who disco- 
vered the Cape of Good Hope, It is not always the 
smallest states that furnish the most trivial advantages, 
and render the least service to the world. 

" Before the revolution Italy was but a gallery of 
^^ pictures ; a museum that all the world visited ; but 
" she never had any influence on piditieal affairs. It 
<* was alw ys this Italy, of which the author of the Per- 
** sian Letters says, that, divided into an infinity of 
^^ states, its jirinces are, properly speaking, martyrs of 
*^ sovereignty. Our glorious sultans often have more 
** wives than individuals among them have subjects. 
^' Tlie.ir habitual divisions keep their states open, like 
^' caravanseras, for the first who choose to take up their 
*^ abode. This it is that compels them to attach them- 
^' selves to great sovereigns, and partake of their fears, as 
•^ well as of their friendship. This picture remained uu- 
^^ changed till the French invaded this beautiful country, 
'' and they had well studied it. There was no part of it 
^' for which they might have not fought longer, but the 



Congress of Vienna. 49 

" effortsi would have been fruitless ; from a distributiou 
^^ of powers, in which it was impossible to trace any 
"plan, or any thing that announced the least appear- 
** ance of order in the arrangements for this country, all 
^•^ these contests produced but a wretched result. 

*' Thus Germans reigned at Milan, and could only 
"reach thereby crossing the territory of Venice. The 
" King of Sardinia, placed between Austria and France, 
"'•^ could balance neither the one nor the other. Each. 
^* wished to devour him. In these disputes he furnished 
*' the road and the field of battle; and, in fact, the 
" gaoler of the Alps was too feeble to keep the keys. 
'^ On the side of the Milanese his position was still 
" worse ; for, in his affairs with the Germans, he did 
" not possess the advantages that the Alps offered him 
"against the French. Henee Italy was defended nei- 
^^ ther against France nor against Germany. His passive 
" state was aggravated by the dissentions of her petty 
^^ princes, all prepossessed the one against the other, 
*'and always at variance.'' Thus the King of Sardinia 
feared and encroached on the Duke of Milan ;* who^ 
in his turn, frightened Genoa. 

France surprised Italy in the midst of this confusion 
of inclinations and interests ; of this absence of any 
Italian public spirit; but its interference in the affairs 
of Italy has, at least, had its effect ; and this effect 
will continue to create a determined spirit of indepen- 
dence. At this moment we may speak of Italy as we 
speak of liquors in a state of fermentation ; we must 
wait for their precipitation in order to ascertaii* their 
quality. 

" The south of Europe was wholly a stranger to the 
"balance of Europe. VVe only begin to perceive traces 
*^of it on arriving in Germany and advancing towards 
" the north. There at least tliere exi'^ted a species of 
" plan, and a general corrective, for the innumerable 

* " The Milanese is an artichoke that we must eat leaf by leaf," said Vic- 
tor Amad'f'ns. 

G 



50 Congress of Vienna, 

^' defects that existed in the bosom of its states. The 
" Treaty of Westphalia had regulated the political 
" state of Germany, and formed its code of public law. 
" A great number of powers had concurred in its for- 
*' mation and support; and, in later times, states, fo- 
** reign even to Germany, had attached themselves to 
^' it. But the multitude of changes, produced in the 
'* course of time, had so altered ihe substance of this 
*^ treaty, as to render it wholly inadecjuate to actual cir- 
•^ cumstances. The cessions made to Louis XIV. vio- 
" lated its integrity. Some of tiie powers that had as- 
" sisted at its formation, particularly Sweden, had lost 
" their influence, and were not attached to the empire 
" by other than imperceptible ties. New powers, such 
" as Prussia, had raised themselves in the bosom of the 
^^ empire. Russia advanced towards it every day. On 
'^'^ the contrary, Austria detached herself in a similar 
" proportion, and appeared more willing to bear the 
^^ title than the burthen. 

" The constant opposition of Austria to Prussia had 
"divided Germany into two parts: all were ranged 
" under two banners ; so that there was nothing more 
^^ rare in Germany than a German :'^ there were only 
Austrians and Prussians. The necessity of defending 
themselves in the latter periods of Napoleon, has re» 
vived the German spirit, but it visibly tends to make it 
again fall into its first division. In fact, a higher and 
lower empire still exists in Germany. 

" Austria possesses an immense extent of territory, 
" which contributes as much to her weakness as her 
" strength : for she has neighbours every where, and 
*^ frontiers no where. In her distant possessions in the 
'* Low Countries she succeeded to a degree of embar- 
»^ rassment still greater than that experienced by Spain: 
*'• the latter could send those armies by sea which 
" Austria could only despatch by land. These conti- 
^^ nental colonies do not answer; inasmuch as maritime 
" powers can always invade them, and at a little ex~ 
^^ pense. 



Congress of Vienna. 51 

" The Low Countries placed Austria in a state of 
^^ dependence on France and on the north. The Mila- 
^' nese made part of Italy his enemy. With all these 
^' embarrassments, Austria had to encounter those of 
^' the empire ; a body inert as to useful political action^ 
'' but ever in a state of agitation. 

" Poland, for one hundred years, has not had a pro- 
^' fitable existence for Europe. If the partition of this 
'^ country outraged morality, its government outraged 
^^ reason. Morally speaking, nothing will authorise 
*^ partition ; but, since the appearance of Russia on 
<* the great theatre of the world, it has become indis- 
" pensable. A new river has began to flow from the 
^^ pole to the south of Europe. A part of the globe, if 
" the expression may be allowed, has altered the direc- 
^^ tion of its course, and has imposed a new load on 
" Europe. It now has to support a burthen that here- 
" tofore it would not have been able to bear. Similar 
*' to those rocks, that, separating from the mountains, 
** tumble to the bottom ; and, dragging down every 
" thing that comes in the way, the unwieldy body of 
^* the Russian empire, once put in motion on the side 
*^ of Europe, will pursue its career till she meets bar- 
^^ riers strong enough to arrest it. These barriers are 
^' in Poland.'^ 

Prussia is a power newly created. She has scarcely 
existed one hundred years, and has passed the eigh- 
teenth century in aggrandising herself. Not being able 
to extend her territory at tiie expense of powers stron- 
ger than herself, nor of those which are weaker ; sought 
after by France, dreaded by Austria, the safeguard of 
the German empire, the shield of Holland ; also strong 
in the necessity she is under of using her own means, 
capable of defending, unable to destroy ; before the re- 
volution Prussia was one of the main supports of the 
balance of Europe. None of the innovations that have 
since taken place have sprung directly from her. She 
lias known how to lend and conform herself to them for 
lier own safety, in order to remain in a state of relative 



^*Z Congress of Vienna, 

inferiority, that, in politics, is equal to an effectual de- 
privati(»n ; l>ut far from provoking invasions, effected 
or projected against other states, she has armed herself 
against them. ¥ov instance, the treaties of Teschen, 
of Reichenbach, and the line of demarcation fn)m 1795 
to 1801. If, since this period, Prussia has accepted 
territories that did not lielong to her, we may say that, 
in sinning agamst morality, ((tn this subject we do not 
presume to judge,) she has not sinned against the 
European balance ; for these additions of territory 
were either compensations f(»r losses experienced, or 
equalisations proportioned to the acquisitions of tlie 
nrighhouring powers, w hich it was necessary she should 
approach in the same proportion as tliey approached 
Ber territory : and that which finally demonstrated the 
importance of Prussia in the political balance was, that 
rather surprised than conq\iered, more beaten by the 
inexperience of her officers than the strength of her 
enemy, Prussia fell in her first contest with France, 
at the very moment that the great empires of France 
and Russia came into contact, and fought battles 
which gave the world a new appearance. Of such 
importance is Prussia to Europe: — placed as the 
centre of her political balance, and always sufficient- 
ly strong to prevent one of the scales outweighing the 
other. 

Russia, like Prussia, born as to Europe in the eigh- 
teenth century, has uniformly disturbed it. Instead of 
steadying tlie balance, her conduct has been diametri- 
cally opposite. The Russian empire is one that for the 
last century has continued in a state of increase. 

Finland, one of its great objects, was not annexed to 
it. In the hands of Sweden, tlsis country was to Peters- 
burg what Normandy would be to Paris in the hands of 
Great Britain. Neither the one nor the other could 
escape from a power so effectually surrounding them. 
These are objects, the possession of which nations re- 
gard as of the first necessity ; so much so, that they can-r 
not be quiet until they have gained them. 



Congress of Vienna. 53 

At this time, Russia asked Europe to watch her for- 
ward march, proQiisin^ that this step should he the 
last ; and protesting, that having thus arrived at the 
height of her desires, she should only wish to enjoy re- 
pose, and contribute to that of others. 

This would surely be the most noble employment for 
her immense forces ; as much the more formidable, as 
an extensive experience !ias just proved, that to her 
alone on the continent beloni^s the frightful privilege of 
being able to commit an outrage on others that they can- 
not retaliate upon her. 

When Sweden possessed a large territory in Germa- 
ny and in Russia, she influenced the former nearly as 
much as Prussia does in our times. The latter had 
not yet an exis,tence ; Poland was in a state of chaotic 
barbarism : but, since Sweden, in consequence of the 
wars of Charles the Xllth, lost almost all her con- 
tinental possessions, her sovereigns, withdrawn into the 
extreme regions of the north, were rather spectators 
than actors on the great theatre of the world. If the 
union of Calmar could have been preserved, it would 
have given an importance to Sweden very superior to 
tliat which siie now enjoys. But, by the annexation, 
of Norway to Sweden, this power has assumed a rank 
nearly equal to that assigned her by the union of Cal- 
mar. 

Invulnerable at home, unable to conquer, not liable 
to be conquered, formed into one body by the acquisi- 
tion of Norway, as she was divided into two parts by 
tlie possession of Finland, Sweden has obtained a very 
great defensive force and off'ensive strength, very pro- 
per for the support of ti»e political balance. For the 
future, Sweden can have but two enemies. To Rus-= 
sia, she will be the England of the north ; and the 
guardian of the Baltic against England, as well as the 
ally of the powers on its shores. Having no longer to 
defend her interior, she will be able to turn all her at- 
tention to internal and foreign commerce. This com- 



51^ Congress of Vienna, 

merce will give her wealth, and her foreign traffic will 
furnish her with a numerous and hardy marine ; which, 
united with that of the other powers of Europe, will 
one day perhaps force England to temper with justice 
the exercise of her maritime superiority. "' Denmark 
i( weighs heavier in the balance of commerce than in 
f/< that of politics. Her states are too small, too much 
<^ separated from the Continent, too detached from one 
i' another; and, for the most part, too much neglected 
«^ by nature. The loss of Norway completed her loss 
i^ of any species of importance. By the side of the 
i' great states that are formed on all sides, Denmark is 
i' nothing more than a great and line lordship, invested 
ii with a royal crown. Since the war of the succes- 
i^ sion in Spain, Holland has lost all active influence 
" in the affairs of Europe. Devoting herself entirely 
«^ to commerce, she has given up playing the part act- 
(' ed by William and his magistrates, who were the 
i' constant enemies of Louis the XlVth. As to Eng- 
i^ land, it is a matter of question whetlier she maio- 
i<^ tains or subverts the political balance. She governs 
<i the seas, reigns over commerce, and gathers the 
« wealth of all nations. The latter were sometimes 
" compelled to unite against her. Inattackable in her 
'^ islands, present every where with her thousand ships, 
" she enjoys with satisfaction the storms she raises on 
" the Continent. They constitute her safety ; and, if 
«^ she takes any pains to assuage them, it is when dif- 
" ferences proceed too far, or when they threaten some 
<^^ of the parties that she has an interest in preserving, 
" with ruin. Thus, in 1790, England assuming the 
" part of France, prevented Turkey from falling into 
" the clutches of llussia.^' 

Fortunate is the lot of England ; for undoubtedly 
she is the most powerful nation in Europe. Inaccessi- 
ble at home, it is not possible to arrive at London by 
the roads, of the nature of tliose that lead to Yienna, 
Berlin, and Moscow; and, may I say? even to Paris. 



Congress of Vienna. 55 

The element that must furnish the road belongs to 
her. For how many ages will Europe have to labour^ 
in order to enable her united flags to brave those of 
England alone ! Imprudent provocations have taught 
her how to defend her shores. Other provocations 
have led her to the formation of armies, and have 
furnished her with names illustrious by their exploits. 
In vain has the most intelligent of her enemies sought 
for her vulnerable points. On all sides he found a ro- 
bust body, rendered impenetrable by the double shield 
of the best constitution existing in the universe ; and 
that unanimity and patriotism that have attached her 
people to the interest of their country. In vain has 
lie attempted to unstring the nerve of her power, in 
attacking her finances and iho, commerce of which they 
are the soul. In vain has he directed against them all 
the eiforts of his mind and his strength. Similar to 
those singular productions of nature that revive after 
the steel has mutilated them, her power has aug- 
mented in proportion to the measures taken to restrict 
it; and England attacked in its credit, deceived the 
hopes entertained on the subject of her exhaustion, and 
enjoyed the delusions of her enemies. She replied to 
those prognostics which were formed as to her future 
distress, by miracles of wealth hitherto unknown to 
the world, by a devotion that had the air of calling 
for sacrifices? in order that she might make them.* 



* Financial predictions have not been more fortunate in England than ia 
Fran'-e. 

For a long time Mr. Pitt founded his hopes on the assignats, the mandats, 
and rtscnptions ; and on all the financial operations which the Convention 
and the Directory successively adopted. 

Also for a long period M. d'lvernois did not permit a year to pass, with- 
out announcing that the French government was about to sink, in conse- 
quence of the state of its finances ; and even fixed the day, the 31st Decem- 
ber. 

On the other hand, the French were not in arrear, as to predictions equal- 
ly sinister and quite as vain. 



5$ Congress of Vienna. 

Happy the people with whom every new want has thfe 
effect of opening a new source of wealth. For exam- 
ple, to what an elevation has not the power of Grreat 
Eritain raised her? The war has rendered her mistress 
of the most important parts of the globe. See how 
fearless she floats on the ocean, and casts her anchor at 



It seems that on both sides the question was not understood. On the 
side of England, they fancied a cause of destruction that which was not 
even a cause of embarrassment to the French government, still less to the 
French people. Behold the facility with which money, sufficient for all 
the wants of the country, has been obtained, after all the paper thatRamel, 
comptroller-general of the finances after Cambon, had valued at not more 
than forty-five milliards, had disappeared. During all this time, thei'e was 
not an acre of ground less cultivated, nor one house less built. Where* 
then, was the embarx'assment of the finances ? 

On the side of France, the error was in searching for the wealth of Eng- 
land in her budget, and not in her resolution to sacrifice all her wealth for 
her preservation. Here it was that she found a resource for every deficit _ 
It had for its mortgage, England, Scotland, Ireland, India, America, and 
the commerce of the world. All would have been exhausted, rather than 
she would yield. Hence, what signifies the deficit and the prognostic to 
which they gave rise ? We have only to look to what has happened. 

Besides, it is a false doctrine that a state necessarily sinks in consequence 
of the bad state of its finances. If it were true, there would not be a state 
in existence in Europe. The financial affairs of Austria, for fifteen years, 
have been in a most pitiable state. The monarchy has never been more 
powerful, more victorious. 

For eighteen years, the finances of Prussia have scarcely had an existence. 
Prussia is more powerful than ever, and the Prussians have been at Paris 
twice in fifteen months. 

A general rule : financial difficulties only afTect the weak and the timid. 
Another general rule : in revolution there are no finances, neither for one 
party nor another ; for the states that create them, and who attack, nor 
those who defend themselves. It is only after the contest that financial 
systems can be established. 

America, for instance, did she think of her financial system during the 
•war of independence ? Assuredly not. Besides, they were in great disor- 
der when General Hamilton took charge of them, and established a system 
which attracted to America the great treasures of the whole world, until 
the moment when she had the imprudence to enter into the contest with 
Great Britain ; a contest in vvhicbj to adopt a vulgar expression, she had. 
" nothing to gain but blo-ivs." 



Congress of Vienna. 57 

every spot that commands every sea ; thus enclosing 
the world in the net that she appears to have thrown 
over it. The domination of Great Britain differs wide- 
ly from that of the great continental powers. It is very 
true that she cannot, as France has so often done, march 
her armies to all the capitals of Europe. They never 
can reach her's. She strikes at a distance, and always 
makes a sure blow. Her armies are at once in India, 
and before Boston.* 

To this direct influence it is necessary to add that of 
the wealth, which, for the past twenty-five years, has 
furnished Great Britain with the means of supplying 
the wants that other powers experience in the coni= 
mencement of their operations; and by which she 
makes vassals of these people, jnst as much as if they 
were tributary to her. Hence Great Britain is the pre- 
ponderating power ; and still more preponderating, as 
this power is the combined result of a state of things of 
which nothing can deprive her; namely, her insular 
position ; her marine strength ; her constitution and 
public spirit. t 

"The result from this picture of Europe is, that 
" there never has been a balance of power formed on 
" fixed and regular bases. 

* In 1811, we have beheld a British armament leaving' the coasts of 
Malabar and Coromandel, in order to g'o and disembark twenty-five thou= 
sand men on the shores of the Isle of France. This circumstance is un- 
equalled in the annals of the world. In the space of ten n.onths, a British, 
army left Bayonne and Bordeaux, appeared before New Orleans, in Canada, 
and returned to the plains of Picard)'. 

We here behold the value of the sea to those who have made themsehes 
its masters. Thus do we see realised in favour of England what a French 
poet has said, 

" Le trident de Neptune est le sceptre du monde." 

+ Speaking- of the British, Montesquieu says, " They are the people 
" who best imderstand to re .der themselves superior in three great 
" things ; religion, liberty, and commerce."' Spirit of Laws, book xx. chap, 
viii. 

H 



58 Congress of Vienna,, 

" The treaty of Westphalia is the only monument 
" of this kind. Still it was applicable to but a small 
«^ portion of Europe. It has given rise to an idea of A 
" balance, as well as of a necessity, of restraining one 
^' great power by the efforts of another, and to guaran- 
^< tee the smaller ones by an honourable dependence. 
" But in this plan there is more of habit than of calcu- 
" lation to be discovered ; it is true that some powers 
^' are tolerably well balanced; but they do not form a 
^^ combined whole, nor are they adapted to a general 
^* system. 

" The shocks which Europe has experienced since 
^* the peace of Westphalia have not been sufficiently 
*^ powerful nor general to render it desirable to go much 
^» farther. The favourable opportunity offered at the 
^^ commencement of the war of the succession of Spain 
^^ was lost. Also that, at the epoch of the contest for 
" the succession of the Emperor Charles the Sixth, was 
" missed. 

" At a critical period Europe was surprised by the 
^* French revolution, produced by an infinity of causes, 
" all of them calculated to exhibit the weakness of her 
" system. They were, 

" First, The resentment of Great Britain to France, 
^^ for having become the auxiliary of the United States 
^* in the war of independence. 

" Second, The war made by Russia on the Ottoman 
" Porte. 

" Third, The quarrels of Austria in the Low Coun- 
^* tries. 

" Fourth, The discontent in Holland with Joseph the 
** Second, on account of the war of the Scheldt. 

" Fifth, The imprudence of the latter in his war 
" against the Turks. 

" Sixth, The internal dissentions in Holland, pro- 
" duced by Prussia. 

" Seventh, The coolness that this interference pro 
" duced between France and her ancient ally. 



Congress of Vienna, 59 

" Eighth, The rapacity of the three powers as to 
^^ Poland, to whose political existence they gradually 
'^ put an end. 

" Ninth, The apprehensions of Austria on the score 
« of Italy. 

" Some powers found themselves in a state of in- 
" crease, or, to use the expression, at their acme, such 
" as Prussia and Russia. Others, on the contrary, ex- 
" perienced a decline, and were at the lowest ebb. 

" Hence, all was disorder and division in Europe. 
" Never were the bonds of association more relaxed. 
'^ The revolution had not much trouble in breaking 
" up interests so discordant. There was no compact 
" and well-connected body that could offer any resist- 
^^ ance.^' 

We shall soon see whether the congress at Vienna 
has put more cement into its work. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Of the Opportunities lost during the last Century of 
establishing the Political Balance of Europe. 



In the fortune of nations, as in that of individuals^ 
there are always circumstances decisive of their fate« 
It is but seldom that they meet with those opportuni- 
ties, of which it is necessary that they should avail 
themselves, for they perhaps will not again occur but 
after a long interval of time. Fortune, attentive to the 
welfare of nations, often offers them this species of re- 
source, in order that they may be enabled to correct 
their errors, or repair their losses. But it is rare that 
they ever take advantage of the opportunity, and prove 



60 Congress of Vienna. 

themselves, by embracing it, more intelligent than iii- 
ilivitluais. The passions that preclude the latter from, 
profiting of these happy correctives of tiieir situation, 
do not operate less actively on nations, and in the same 
manner divert their attention from making the attempt 
to give their affairs a direction by which a good use of 
these favourahle opportunities might be made. 

Eurojje will rifford us four great examples of a for- 
getfulness of this sort, exhibited during the past cen- 
tury. 

(harles the Second, King of Spain, died without 
c! 5 lien, but not without slutes. The latter were to be 
found every whe«e. 

His will, made not unlike those of which a picture 
is to be found in the theatres, by the manoeuvres of 
avaricious heirs, was opposed by other acts more or 
less clear, more or less legitimate. But it was attack- 
ed more efficaciously by almost all Europe, which, un- 
der the guidance of the greatest politician of his time, 
King William, who, having been twenty-five years in 
arms, and greatly jealous of Louis the Fourteenth, was 
not disjiosed to behold the house of this prince receive 
an inheritance that gave him for an ally even the power 
that had fought with France for two hundred years; 
an inheritance which, under the grandson of Louis the 
Fourteenth, woubl make the Spanisli Low Countries a 
French province, place at the gates of Holland, and 
without a blow, the same sovereign whom the patriotism 
of the Hollanders exalted, so far as to inundate their 
own country, and leave themselves only able to shut 
the gates of Amsterdam. 

Europe could n(»t behold with tranquillity, that this 
arrangement should be permitted to destroy its liberties, 
in giving to France, under the name of Spain, a great 
part of Italy «nd the wealthy America. The war of the 
succession burst out and embroiled Europe in a bloody 
contest for twelve years ; and as it had been instigated 
by some with a view to personal interests, and by others, 
more from a hatred of Louis the Fourteenth than an 



Congress of Vienna^ 61 

attachment to Europe, it failed in its object. Spain 
remained to Pliilip the Fiftii ; and the branches torn 
from this superb tree were not employed for the gene- 
ral benefit of Europe, but to satisfy individual amiii- 
tion, or rather to consolidate pretended rights. The 
war of the succession terminated like a cause between 
fatigued and exhausted lawyers, rather than as an aifair 
between statesmen ; and however Europe at that time 
may have calculated on names, both in the course of war 
and the business of the cabinet, their celebrity has not 
long since been surpassed. It was not at that period aff 
it is at present throughout Europe. With the excep- 
tion of the British, ail individuals were excluded from 
any participation in public affairs. Hence, political 
transactions concentred in the cabinets of princes, par- 
took, under their hands and in those of their ministers^ 
of a complexion purely personal, and which induced 
them to prefer the affections of their families, and the 
private taste of princes, to the general interests of the 
people. So much is the state of nations changed, that 
at this time such a system could not be established with- 
out great clamour. 

The succession of the Emperor Charles the Sixth 
presented to the European powers a second opportunity 
for a regular arrangement of policy among the various 
members of which they were composed. 

Surely there was great injustice in speculating on the 
youth and weakness of a princess, presuming her in the 
age of inexperience, and thinking her fortunate in pre- 
serving one part of her states by the sacrifice of the 
others. It was a horrible act of violence ; and with the 
exception of the imperial dignity, elective in its nature, 
and which may without impropriety be transferred to 
another person, we cannoi conceive how they could 
apply to Maria Theresa any other public law than 
that which had existed amon^ other sovereigns ; and 
bow she would not have been able to inherit the pos- 
sessions of her fatlier, by the same title tha|, all other 



62i Congress of Vienna. 

princes inherit theirs. It partakes of ideas highly in- 
jurious to public law, antl is most essentially forgetful 
of that of nations. The latter are not litigious ; and a 
thousand wars occasioned by the right of succession in 
princes, would have been averted by an understanding 
of the positive rights of the people. 

Instead of turning her attention to herself, Europe 
devoted it to Prussia ; the imperial dignity, and the 
apanages that were to be created in Italy, in favour 
of some cadets of the House of Bourbon. Then it 
was that the great Frederick averted the danger, by 
liis appearance on the political theatre, and then first 
dawned the Aurora of his reign — ^a reign, the glory of 
"which never has been eclipsed. Then it was that 
Messieurs de Belleisle, so blustering and noisy, and 
now so perfectly forgotten, — a fate reserved for every 
administration that possesses a character neither nation- 
al nor European, — succeeded in plunging Cardinal 
Fleury into a war, of which that venerable statesman 
wholly disapproved. The courage, the unconquerable 
firmness of Maria Theresa, surmounted all these obsta- 
cles. They disappeared before the imposing character 
of a young princess, as distinguished by the beauty of 
lier person, as by the elevation of her rank, and which 
so well knew how to inflame and arouse her subjects 
by one of those traits which constitute the true secret 
of a mother's heart. 

Thus for many years chances were balanced, and the 
war terminated, as wars will ever terminate, when it was 
waged without a great object, by weakness and intrigue, 
by family arrangements ; and eventually, by a total for- 
getfulness of the general interests of Europe. 

Maria Theresa preserved the central part of her states 
and the imperial crown, the ancient apanage of her 
family, by the sacrifice of Silesia, and that of some 
parts of her dominions in Italy. The Low Countries 
were restored to her; but much less on her own ac- 
count^ than of the step being hostile to France and 



Congress of Vienna, 63 

frieudly to Holland. The barrier treaty was renewed, 
instead of advantage being taken of the opportunity to 
unite Holland and Belgium, and to establish a kingdom 
in Italy. But these grand measures surpassed the po- 
licy of the times. Henee, this second epoch was not 
more favourable to the balance of Europe than the first 
had been. The succeeding periods have not served it 
more essentially. If ever a time had occurred when 
it might have occupied the attention, it was at the epoch 
of the revolution, which having altered, renewed every 
thing, and which having placed Europe at the disposi- 
tion of France, did not give, during the course of this 
long neglect of the general interests of Europe, any 
other tendency than to furnish this country, not with 
the superiority, (that she had already,) but the supre- 
macy ; not the general safety of Europe, but the admi- 
nistration of its government. 

At Radstadt, at CampoFormio, at Presburg, at Til- 
sit, at Vienna in 1809, at Prague, there was not heard 
a single word, there was not a single look cast, that 
had the slightest tendency to establish a balance in Eu- 
rope. 

It was principally the Emperor Napoleon who show- 
ed himself the most destitute of this public spirit for 
Europe. For him this quarter of the globe only ex- 
isted, but as a house in ruins, on the foundations of 
which he proposed to erect an edifice after new plans 
and according to views wholly personal. ^^ I have,'' 
as this sovereign often said, " a great political system.'' 
This manner of operating was not more to the taste of 
France than to that of Europe, for he well knew that 
France, for her own reputation, would at all times, and 
in all places, applaud the victories of her armies, be- 
cause they redounded to his honour, and were his work. 
But this motive did not induce her to applaud those en- 
terprises that have merely produced to him the glory 
of triumph. Thus France was highly delighted with 
the victory of the Moskowa, but she was far from ap= 
proving of the war with Russia. 



64 Congress of Vienna. 

la lier conquests, France has exhibited a good sensGj 
of which her chief has been destitute. For her, the 
line of demarcation and the point at which she wanted 
to stop, was the Hhine. That was the only thing of 
which France was truly desirous, and the abandonment 
of which she has deeply regretted. 

How much is it to be deplored, that a mind, the 
views of which were so extensive and the ideas so lu- 
minous, as that of the Emperor Napoleon, should have 
suffered itself to wander so far as to dream of amalga- 
mating of materials so hostile to one another, without 
the common bonds that are to be found in geographical 
situation, in language, in manners, in habits ; that he 
should ever be able to make S-ome and Lubeck mem- 
bers of the same state; that all people should consent 
to a common and voluntary forgetfulness of all the an- 
tecedents of the glory and the renown that belonged to 
them. On the contrary, why did Napoleon not disco- 
ver the solidity that would have been attached to his 
own establishment, or that of an order of things that 
should have combined the interests of all Europe? How 
is it that he has measured not only the grandeur, the 
real grandeur that he would have acquired in the eyes 
of all Europeans, by resolving the still irresolvable 
problem of the true system of Europe ? 

No one can doubt, in fact, who recollects what has 
occurred in the last twenty- five years; (and who has 
not regarded the events that have passed in the course 
of them with indignation and disdain ?) that no oppor- 
tunity similar to that which presented itself to Napoleon 
lias ever offered itself to any other man. He had done 
for people, what may be said of the Greeks, at the end 
of the Trojan wat, 

" Fracti bello, fatisque repulsi." 

On all sides peace, stability, and a tolerable degree of 
order, were demanded. The fear inspired by France 
was great. The renown of her chief redoubled this fear. 



Congress of Vienna. 65 

He was able to propose any thing for which he wished, 
in order to efl'ect the regular arrangement of Europe, 
and he could have obtained any thing. What do I 
say? They would have esteemed themselves happy in 
obeying him. Had he formed this establishment, which 
combined the interests of all, he would have received 
as many benedictions as he did in France for the re- 
establishment of religious worship, and for all that he 
Lad done in the cause of civilisation :* for it was less 
to the warrior, than the restorer of social order, that 
the wishes and submission of France were addressed. 
It would have been the same with Europe, Of the en- 
tire and absolute resignation with which France had 
given herself up to the direction of Napoleon, by her 
conviction of the superiority of his views and the purity 
of his intentions, all Europe would have partaken on 
the subject of tlie order of her policy. 

More fortunate than ever had been any man in power, 
in the means of influencing his equals, Napoleon would 
have found the world so fatigued, that he might have 
done any thing in the name of the general repose. 
Everything was so completely overturned, that he had 
the power of reconstruction, when and how he chose, 
completely within his reach. He found terror so per- 
fectly established, that the absence of evil, or even of 
contests less rude, would have passed for a benefit. 

If in the place of that mass of negotiations and trea- 
ties that parcelled out Germany — if in the place of the 
successive re-unions of Italy, he had founded a good 
order of things for the one, at the same time keeping 
within the limit of the Rhine, the loss of which is 
now so regretted ; and if he had profited of the vacan- 
cy of a great part of the territories of Italy, in order to 
establish a system which we shall, in a future page, 
explain more fully, he would have seen every one fly to 
him, and make their own happiness the pledge of his 
stability. But it was otherwise ordered by Providence. 
It has willed that to the power with which he had been 
invested to overturn every thing, he should not add the 

I 



66 Congress of Vienna. 

knowledge of establishing any thing ; that to the abili- 
ty he possessed to restore every thing, should not be 
added the means of assuring the existence of any thing; 
and that for having substituted himself for Europe, he 
should terminate his career by being expelled from her 
shores. 

Thus was lost the finest opportunity ever offered for 
at last constituting Europe into a well organised body, 
and of finding irt this establishment a reparation for the 
evils she has suffered, and a solid guarantee against 
their return. 

We shall soon see whether the Congress at Vienna, 
which forms the last epoch, has legislated on the same 
occasion with a view to universality and stability, the 
absence of which has characterised the epochaof which 
we have just spoken. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



What has been done in Europe for the last one hun- 
dred years towards establishing the Balance of 
Power. 



Political Europe, for the most part, resembles an- 
cient cities, the plans of which appear to have been 
traced by a race of men hostile to right lines, the sun, 
and the air. To move about, to see clearly, aud breathe 
freely, we must betake ourselves to the suburbs. 

All the ancient political organisation of Europe was 
tortuous and gloomy. The various states of which it is 
composed, were principally formed from the wrecks of 
the Roman empire. For fifteen 'hundred years, this 
political vulture has gnawed at this great body without 
having been able to exhaust it. 



Congress of Vienna. 67 

All the states have been formed by the fortuitous 
aggregation of a multitude of others, more or less ex= 
tensive, and which a variety of causes have added to 
them. 

At first France, with her Roman Gauls, then with the 
kingdoms of Aries, of Austratia, of Orleans, of Sois- 
sons ; with the dutchies, the earldoms, and the sove- 
reignties, which were successively formed from the 
wreck of the Roman empire, and which have termi- 
nated by being absorbed into that state now called 
France. Each had, as it happened, its king, duke, or 
earl. 

Germany, Italy, took the same direction. On all 
sides they availed themselves of the circumstances of 
the times to arrondise their territories, and avail them- 
selves of all the conveniences within their reach. 

Eleanor of Guyenne, in the shape of a dower, in- 
vested a king of England with one of the finest provin- 
ces of France. This dower cost the two countries tiiree 
hundred years of war. Maria, of Burgundy, trans- 
ferred to the House of Austria a superb heritage, form- 
ed, in a great measure, of the spoils of France. The 
torches of this hymeneal connexion lighted up a war of 
many years' duration between the two houses reigning 
over France and Austria. The rights of Louis the Xllth 
to the Milanese, cost France sixty years of war in that 
country ; which, occupied and lost a thousand times 
by the French, appeared, at each new attempt on their 
part, fully to confirm this sentence of Livy. JSTon sine 
providentissimo deorum immortalium consilio, Jilfes^ 
Italiam et Galliam, dimserimt. Nature even has is- 
sued a decree for their separation. But Europe has 
ever been governed in the spirit of property by patrimo- 
nial title, and not with a view to political and general 
good order. 

If princes, whose numbers are few, have divided 
among their heirs those states too extensive or too much 
detached from one another, these arrangements have 
all been made with relation to their families^ and not 



6$ Congress of Vienna. 

to the political order of Europe. This arose from a 
want of civilisation, and from the little communication 
which people had with each other. 

The first trace of any solicitude for the general inter- 
ests of Europe, is not to be found farther back than the 
treaty of Utrecht: by which it was stipulated tliat in 
no case could the two crowns of France and Spain be 
placed on the same head. This was an act truly Eu- 
ropean. 

Besides, to take and keep for one's self has nearly 
formed the whole of the diplomatic dictionary of Eu- 
rope. 

The present period is not destitute of well assorted 
arraneienjents in the political constitution of Europe. 
We have just seen two formed that cannot be other- 
wise than highly favourable. 

1st. The union of Norway with Sweden. 

2d. That of Belgium and Holland. 

We have already shown the advantages of the union 
of Sweden to Norway. That which is beneficial for 
both parties is equally so to Europe, very appropriate 
to the two countries, and an arrangement of which all 
Europe is called to reap the advantages. 

Not less benefit will be derived from the union of 
Belgium and Holland ; and the more extensive this 
connexion, the more it will become useful to the whole 
body of Europe. This subject requires a peculiar de- 
velopement. 

Holland, in her ancient state, did not serve for any 
useful purpose in the political balance of Europe. She 
was only its bank and storehouse, and she no longer 
formed one of its body politic. 

The population of Holland was very contracted ; too 
much occupietl in commercial pursuits to be able to 
furnish a national army. In consequence of this circum- 
stance, the Dutch army was almost wholly composed of 
foreign troops ; in fact, this army had ceased to be so 
considered. Her marine was rather extensive : her 
colonies were badly provided with troops, and still were 



Congress of Vienna. 69 

difficult to keep, in consequence of those principles of 
dissolution that, for twenty-five years, had generally 
affected colonial affairs. 

Belgium, abandoned to herself, did not present any 
stronger guarantees to Europe. Austria had actually, 
and intentionally, renounced the right. It was at Ve- 
nice, and at Milan, that she completed the surrender of 
Brussels. 

The Belgians have exhibited a persevering attach- 
ment to Austria. This circumstance does honour both to 
the government and the people. It could not fail to add 
to the mutual regret at their separation. But Austria 
had, for a long time, felt the inconvenience of this con- 
tinental colony. She was unable, like Spain, to land 
there from her ships, and which thus placed her in a 
state of dependence on the whole world. One year of 
war would absorb the produce of ten years of peace. 
The country could be invaded before the corps destined 
for its defence could leave their garrisons. The enemy 
was at Lisle, and the defenders in Bohemia and Hun- 
gary. 

In fine, the possession of Belgium by Austria de- 
prived the country of the enjoyment of that commerce, 
for which, by her natural situa^tion, she was so well 
calculated, by her rivers, her ciinals, and the genius of 
her inhabitants. 

Belgium independent, under a particular prince, 
would not have placed her in such a state as to be use= 
ful to the general balance of Europe. It might have 
flattered the taste of the inhabitants, but it must termi- 
nate by proving itself a dear bargain to all. Thus iso- 
lated, Belgium was a prey to the whole world, without 
being of any direct utility to any one. In this condi- 
tion they could continue to interdict her maritime com- 
merce, and restrain her domestic traffic, by a raultipli» 
city of laws framed by the custom-houses. 

Her connexion with some sovereignty of the empire of- 
fered the least inconveniences. Wecannot see to what so- 
vereign of Gerraanyj, Belgium could have been assigned 



70 Congress of Vienna. 

with the least appearance of utility to the two coun- 
tries and Europe. 

It must be allowed that all these suppositions want 
plausibility. The more we examine them, the more 
evident appears their vanity, and the necessity of re- 
turning to the only combination that nature and the 
power of things have consecrated ; that of the union of 
Holland with the Low Countries. 

Let us develope still farther the advantages likely to 
arise to the two countries and to Europe. 

Geography, climate, language, habits, unite the two 
people. Religion does not oppose this union ; for it is 
not possible to effect a community of political interests, 
if religious opinions and duties are at variance with 
them. Almost all the sovereigns of Germany present a 
picture of the same mixture, without any inconvenience. 
The king of Saxony exercises the Catholic religion 
with the greatest regularity, and has never lost the good 
opinion and affections of his people, who are zealous 
Lutherans. Near him the King of Prussia, a Luthe- 
ran, is an object of equal affection to his Catholic and 
Protestant subjects. Catholicism prevails in Silesia; 
and in the war which has just been terminated, this 
country has been distinguished by its attachment to 
Prussia. Surely an uniformity of religious opinions be- 
tween the prince and his subjects, as well as between the 
subjects themselves, is a principle productive of tran- 
quillity and ease to the government: but a difference of 
opinion does notexclude the possibility of a government 
calculated for the good of the country. Besides, the 
sixth part of Holland professes the same religion as the 
Belgians. Perhaps we may say that the great number 
of Catholics in the two countries will become the object 
of that particular regard and management Which pru- 
dence will not fail to present. Hence all natural con- 
veniences concur in the union of Belgium and Hollanda 

Let us add, that the conveniences of Europe are not 
less consulted by this union. 



Congress of Vienna, 71 

A state placed in such a situation as to be able to ar=. 
rest the first movements of "a powerful enemy, too fee- 
ble herself to conquer, but sufficiently strong not to be 
conquered without a contest, and without giving time to 
its defenders to come within succour ; equally interest- 
ed in protecting its neighbours, and to weaken any : 
this state, we say, is well constituted. It will not prove 
itself offensive to any. It will be an object dear to 
all. 

These countries will contain a population of more 
than five millions of inhabitants. Their political wealth 
is sufficient for great public services. Let us recollect 
what Frederick performed with a much smaller number 
of subjects. 

The riches of these two countries are very great, 
whether we estimate those arising from commerce or 
from agriculture. Hence it possesses financial resources 
equal or superior to those of greater states. Thus con- 
stituted, the kingdom of the Low Countries, and situated 
as it is, will place a weight in the balance of Europe 
at once conservative and pacific ; and which, without it, 
would not exist. It covers France from the attacks of 
the north, and the north from the attacks of France. 

Its principle should be not to permit the north to 
intrude upon France : on the other hand, not to allow 
France to encroach on the north. It is a body inter- 
posing itself to prevent the shocks, and deaden the 
blows, that may pass between them. 

In this circumstance there is nothing disquieting to 
France. What, by its means, can be effected against 
her? If it should produce hostility, even with foreign 
assistance, it is into the centre of the Netherlands that 
its own armies would proceed from Lisle and Valen- 
ciennes, and there, as they have always done, establish 
the theatre of war. 

On her part, France has no longer any interest in 
making an attack ; for surely she will not continue to 
preserve this disposition. After all that has passed 
since the occupation of Belgium, is it to be believed 



^% Congress of Vienna. 

that an invasion of this country would not become a 
signal for a call to arms, that would be general through- 
out Europe ? At the same time, is it to be credited that 
Great Britain, unconquerable as she is, so interested in 
the preservation of this arrangement, which is partly 
her work, would not cover the seas with her thousand 
vessels, interdict all communications with the ports of 
France, and lay open all her treasures, in order to arm 
the world against her? Hence, there can be no doubt, 
but that France would obtain Belgium at the price of a 
general war, and without the hope of eventually pre- 
serving it. 

Let us be bold enough to say, that it is not its sincere 
regrets, but its true interests, that it is the duty of 
France to consult. It is at Bourdeaux,™it is on its 
coasts,— it is in its colonies, that it ought to calculate 
on the price of a precarious acquisition ; and that it 
will leave as much less on the one band as it will pro- 
duce on the other. 

France ought to found her system on new circum- 
stances : and these circumstances should induce her to 
consider the United Provinces of the Low Countries in 
the same light as she did when they were those of Spain, 
and to abandon a jealousy of their interests for a disposi- 
tion that should have common preservation for its ob- 
ject. 

An improper policy may tend to create disputes be- 
tween the states. A more enlightened policy will tend 
to prevent them ; will assimilate the two countries ; will 
show them, that, in the new state of Europe, to divide 
their interests is to ruin them effectually, and that every 
attempt should be made to unite them. In fact, France 
and the United Provinces have one interest. Russia 
and Great Britain have created it. 

In the state of continental increase in which we behold 
Russia, Europe requires many lines to defend herself 
as;ainst her. Prussia and Austria form the first; the states 
covered by the Rhine, the second. If Russia should fall 
upon Germany, would not the defensive line be naturally 



Congress of Vienna, 73 

that of the Rhine? Hence the powers on its border 
form the reserve of Kurope ; and are not France and 
the United Provinces those which cover its banks? 

On the other hand, Great Britain is equal at sea 
to Russia on land. Hence Europe is situated between 
two giants, which menace her equally on both ele- 
ments. 

Should not the same motives induce France and the 
Low Countries to unite their marine as well as land 
force? Henceforth will not the maritime strength of 
Spain connect itself, from the nature of things, with 
that of France, as originally that of Spain ? Indepen- 
dent of any other calculation, will not the superiority 
of that of Great Britain create a necessity for the union 
of all three? Being the second maritime power, will 
not France become the centre, around which all the 
powers of lesser rank ought to rally, in compliance 
with the general rule, of an uwion with the principal 
enemy of those who can exercise oppression? Hence 
the maritime strength of France and the Low Coun- 
tries will be united against Great Britain, in the same 
manner as their armies will co-operate against any 
power who shall menace the passage of the Rhine. 

We have bad occasion to remark, that the former 
state of Holland rendered the preservation of her colo=. 
iiies, and particularly those in Asia, a very difficult 
task ; that this charge very much exceeded her power; 
but the union (the Hutch colonies becoming the com- 
mon properly of Belgium and Holland,) will be suffix 
ciently preserved by the means that the Low Coun- 
tries, in their present state, offer for the purpose. 

From this deduction of principles and facts, it fol- 
lows, that the most important act of policy yet conceiv- 
ed, and executed for the general benefit of Europe, is 
certainly the union of Holland with Belgium. We did 
not attend at the conferences at Chatillon ; we have 
not heaul what was said at that place ; but there is not 
much temerity in thinking, that the transactions there 
were very much opposed to that line of ideas of which 

K 



74 Congress of Vienna. 

we wish wow to show the nature. Of these ideas, the 
iniative, for many years, has not been assumed.* 

It remains for us to speak of the effect, on the arrange- 
ments of the political balance of Europe, arising from 
the partition of Poland. 

We believe that we have so sufficiently explained 
ourselves on the subject of the morality of this act, that 
we shall be excused from recurring to it. Therefore, let 
us cease to speak of its principles, in order that we may 
merely consider it in its relations to the general arrange- 
ment of Europe. 

This partition commenced in 1773. It may be said, 
that then it only became visible. In embrio, it had 
existed ever since the commencement of the century. 
Men are accustomed to consider things only in their 
effects, without having a recurrence to causes. Polities 
even are not more exempt from this error than inferior 
subjects. 

Thus both parties are equally mistaken as to the true 
epoch of this partition. They agree to date it from the 
day when it was proclaimed, although, if they had at- 
tended to the result of the following considerations, 
they would have gone still farther back. The exist- 
ence of Poland was commensurate with its misfortunes, 
while Russia was not known in Europe. But from the 
very day that Russia, altering her course, to make use 
of a common expression, had faced about from Asia 
towards Europe, the condition of Poland became al- 
tered. 

Russia could not invade Europe but throiligh Poland. 
The elective sovereigns of that country, — sovereigns 
uniformly badly supported, — lived in a truly indefina- 
ble and indescribable state with Russia; alternately 
supplicating, fearing, and rejecting her patronage and 
expensive succour, to- operate either against her domes- 
tic factions, or external intrigues, and attacks. The 

* See " The Antidote to the Congress at Radstadt," 179S; " Prussia and 
" its Neutrality," 1800 ; both by M. de Pradt. 



Congress of Vienna. 75! 

high Polish nobility, who then formed the mass of the 
nation, had done nothing else for one hundred years 
than endeavour, by its intrigues, to induce Russia to 
assume the protectorate of Poland. The cause which 
has excited, and which still excites, a portion of the 
cries with which the west of Europe has resounded, on 
the subject of this partition, is the absolute ignorance 
that existed of all the events that had passed for seven- 
ty years between Poland and Russia. Poland is always 
represented as a free state, and independent at home. 
On the contrary, Poland had been morally invaded for 
half a century, and what remained of her strength she 
employed in disputes, to which there was neither ob- 
ject nor end. 

After this internal anarchy, it was the change of the 
relations of Russia with Europe that produced the par- 
tition of Poland. Peter, and Charles the Twelftli, were 
the real authors of this work. 

It was Peter who partitioned Poland by polishing his 
people ; in converting them from Asiatics into Euro- 
peans, and making them look to Europe, instead of 
Tartary, as hitherto they had been accustomed to do ; 
in founding at Saint Petersburg one of the principal 
capitals of Europe, instead of confining himself to a 
residence in the first capital of Asia. Moscow was not 
yet an European town. 

It was Charles the Twelfth who partitioned Poland, 
in drawing upon Europe an enemy that hitherto had 
been a stranger; in forcing him to adopt the manners 
and customs of Europe ; in losing, in the horrible game 
of war, the only ©ne of which he had a knowledge and 
a fondness, his provinces in Germany, the fruits of the 
conquests of his predecessors. They bordered on the 
Baltic Sea, excluded Russia from it, and, by taking 
her in flank, effectually confined her within her ancient 
boundary. Charles the Twelfth, by his warlike dispo- 
sition, attracted the Russians into Europe, as N'lpo- 
leon, by a similar character, has drawn them to Paris 5 



76 Congress of Vienna, 

so much were these thunderbolts of war deficient in 
understanding. 

When Russia, once transplanted, if the expression 
may be used, from A-^ia into Europe, by the establish- 
ment Of the principal seat of empire at St. Petersljurg, 
enjoying a great extent of coast on the Baltic, had in- 
terested herself in the affairs of Europe, and had found 
out the roads leading into it, what means did there re- 
main of driving her back into Asia, and excluding 
her altogether from Europe, by shutting ail the avenues 
against her ? 

Like their ancestors, the Huns, when they became 
acquainted wilii the climate, the fruit, and the beauties 
of Greece, have tiie Russians acted. These are things 
of which men ought never to be permitted to taste; for 
a relish once contracted, is never f rgotten. The Rus- 
sians having thus entered into Europe, have never once 
quitted the road. Hence who furnished them with this 
road ? Was it not Poland ? Was it not across Poland 
that the Russian armies advanced to the Rhine in the 
war of 1740? Was it not again, by the way of Poland, 
that they marched each year against Frederick the 
Great, in that of 1756? For a century back, there have 
been but few years in which Poland has been wholly 
free from Russian troops. Indeed, we cannot consider 
Poland as existing any longer in a state which consti- 
tutes the sovereignty and in<lependence of a country. 
Her neighbours, aware of her impotence, of the dangers 
arising from the anarchy of her government, divided 
her dominions, in order that she might not wholly be- 
long to Russia, and be\ detrimental to their interest. 
Thus was Poland partitioned, in defiance of morality; 
but in consonance to the maintenance of the balance of 
Europe. On the contrary, this partition was favour- 
able to Europe ; and the more general it was, the 
greater the advantage. Austria, Prussia, and Russia 
backed, the one against the other, formed a mass of 
power very capable of being balanced. In this state 



Congress of Vienna. 77 

of contiguity, it became useful to the princes in the west 
of Europe, because it afforded them the means of di- 
recting all their strength towards the ocean, on which 
are to be found tlieir true power and their true ene- 
mies. 

Surely, if Poland had been suffered to remain un- 
touched, its neighbours must have occupied it, (and the 
care of their own repose imperiously prescribed it,) 
but to lead it into a less turbulent state of existence, 
and which had rendered it as insupportable for others 
as themselves. But when, notwithstanding the scruples 
of Maria Theresa, the partition had been permitted, it 
ought not to have been suffered to drag oh for twenty- 
five years (from 1773 to 1797)> but it ought to have 
h^en completed at once. The brevity of the scandal 
would, in some measure, have extenuated the profliga- 
cy of the act. It is impossible to conceive what they 
would do with Poland parcelled out ; but not more than 
we are able to account for having made a dutehy or 
kingdom of Warsaw. 

It results from the above exposition, that the parti- 
tion of Poland has not been injurious to the general ba- 
lance of Europe ; that, on the contrary, the consolida- 
tion arising from this partition has contributed to pre- 
serve it ; that the union of Norway with Sweden, that 
of Belgium with Holland, are operations well adapted 
to the general interests of Europe ; and that by these 
arrangements, in these latter times, there have been 
made more rapid strides, and more improved measures 
taken for the general benefit, than have ever been wit^ 
nessed at any epoch of the history of modern Europe^ 



78 Congress of Vienna, 



CHAPTER IX. 

Of the Spirit presumed to actuate the Congress, 

Iisr every affair there exists a first sketch, a point of 
general view, out of which, from a conviction of its 
truth, and which represents it with some degree of cer- 
tainty, we may say that an opinion proceeds. So long 
as we obey this first, or, so to express it, this native 
impression, we proceed quickly and surely. In conse- 
quence of the effect of a secret affection, from which 
we cannot wholly abstract ourselves, obstacles disap- 
pear, or are cleared away ; resistance loses its intensi- 
ty. It is the mind and the conscience applied to the 
business of life. 

We too often meet with a multitude of contracted 
and narrow views, of prejudices, of personal interests, 
that endeavour to obtain a preponderance on their 
part. When we yield to these excitations, and give 
ourselves wholly up to them, then there is no certain 
course, no fixed object, no period assigned, no concert 
of the disposition, no persuasion in the mind, no satis- 
faction in the heart. 

We may compare the primum moMle to the states- 
man, and the others to the people. 

How many faults would be corrected and regrets 
saved, if men, at the moment of acting, would so far 
continue masters of their feelings, as to ask themselves 
to think about what they are going to perform ; what 
price they affix to the object, the hope of possessing 
which occasions such violent desires ; or, in what view 
they will consider the satisfactioa that their passion, so 



Congress of Vienna. 79 

violent in its calls to be heard, will leave them ; to 
think in the present time of that which is to come ; to 
transport ourselves in thought, if it is the greatest ef- 
fort of the human mind, it is also the surest guarantee 
for a judicious choice of action. 

Hence, that which is good in morals, is not less so 
in politics. Not to act with a view to the present time, 
is not to act with a view to any time. 

Merely to act for ourselves, is not to act for any one 
— in fact, not for our own true interest. 

When men shall be able to act independent of each 
other, they will be able to act independent of the con- 
sideration of the relations that unite them : but, as long 
as they shall form a society, in which all parties are 
connected and firmly united, a society that cannot be 
dissolved even if an attempt shall be made, by it hav- 
ing then become an union, or, so to term it, an adherence 
of all parties to the social compact, — this society is in- 
spired with one common spirit. In this case, each in-^ 
dividual acts for his own interests, and pursuant to his , 
own means, but under the general impression madeon \^ 
the whole body. "" * 

It is this which has rendered Europe a species of re- 
public, of which war has not even relaxed the ties. 
The intercourse established among the different mem- 
bers of this body, only tends to extend and strengthen 
the bonds of association. 

Agreeably to this principle, a public European spirit 
was to be expected from the Congress. 

Every remedy should be proportionate to the nature, 
the duration, the strength of the disease. 

All Europe had been subject to its attacks. From 
Petersburg to Cadiz there have not been witnessed, for 
twenty-five years, any other transactions than those 
arising from that of the revolution. From Cadiz to 
Petersburg, there was nothing to do but arrange all that 
which had been deranged ; and not according to con- 
tracted views, but to those of a general character and 
tendency. 



80 Congress of Vienna, 

P Hence the necessity of a public European spirit; 
that should proportion the reparation to the injury 
sustained, and that should have nothing else for its ob- 
ject. 

But from St. Petersburg to Cadiz what wajs the ge- 
neral want? Stability and repose. What was the ge- 
neral wish? Stability and repose. And this voice, as 
the voice of the people, was the voice of God. 

The work thus in hand, the Congress should no lon- 
ger have neglected it. From this period, they should 
have done nothing but fix this place of repose — they 
should have known that it was only to be found in the 
general order of things in Europe, wisely combined, 
intelligently and liberally marked out, or in the gratifi- 
cations of certain interests and certain systems. 

Victory in favour of Europe was for a long time ex- 
pected. Every thing appeared ready to announce it. 
The sovereigns, forgetting their mutual jealousies, their 
personal speculations, their common fears, were at last 
imited. This was, indeed, a great step. The success 
attending their arms rendered it complete. It had been 
ennobled by the most generous declarations, by the an- 
nouncement of every thing consistent with the general 
welfare. At no period had Europe proceeded with the 
same concert, nor towards so elevated an object ; and 
elevated because it was general. Never had she held 
a language so consoling ; and consoling because it was 
European and clear.* 

It was in this light, and we dare affirm it without fear of 
contradiction, that every European beheld the Congress at 
Vienna, and thus did heexpecttoseeitproceed.'Thecon- 
tinued good understanding among the sovereigns induc- 
ed a belief, that a mode of concert had been established, 

* " Let repose and content at last return to the world ! Let each peo- 

'•' pie find its happiness in its own laws, under its own government ; and 

" let religions the arts and sciences, again flourish for the general happi- 

«' ness and the welfare of the human race." {Words of the Emperor Alex- 
ander J. 



Congress of Vienna. 8i 

and arrangements made beforehand. The promptitude 
and facility with which the state of France had been 
determined ; the same circumstances attending the union 
of Belgium and Holland, showed at once the nature of 
their operations, and the celerity with which they pro* 
posed to carry them into effect. 

The allies, in quitting Paris to meet again at Vienna, 
after having regulated so important a part of the west 
of Europe, seemed to commence, by the regular arrange- 
ment of that country, thus leaving nothing of a dis-, 
quieting nature behin^l them. They believed that they 1 
had before them the table of contents of a work already 
arranged. 

Europe assembled at Vienna in the person of its / 
greatest sovereigns, explaining its wishes by the organ 
of its most distinguished ministers, presented, in this 
senate, a spectacle such as we have never seen- — such 
a one as the seriousness of the surrounding circumstan- 
ces imperiously required. 

We were then justified in expecting that the Con- 
gress would not confine its exertions to become a tribu-^ 
nal, judging trivial and unimportant causes, but a su= 
preme court, that should proceed and pronounce in the 
name of the general interests of Europe, and prove it- 
self wholly exempt from private attachments. In this 
new establishment, an establishment formed upon ge- 
neral principles, would have been found that stability 
and repose of which all Europe had been so long de= 
prived. 

By this great act, Europe exercised over itself the 
right of sovereignty in its fullest extent. It was an as- 
sociation decreeing and stipulating for itself. Then the 
Congress presented the character of a grand solemnity, 
celebrated in honour of the pacification of Europe. It 
was, so to express it, the festival of its repose. What 
advantages wou4d not such a line of conduct have pro- 
duced, if it had been pursued by the Congress? 

Firmness and promptitude of resolutions add to the 
respect that they command. Those of the Congress 



8S Congress of Vienna. 

would have carried witli them the impression of that 
superiority of command always so favourable to obe- 
dience. 

The power of Europe would have borne down all 
opposition ; the happiness of its subjects, at last as- 
sured of repose and stability, would have stifled trifling 
complaints. Europe would have experienced a new 
circulation — a circulation that had been so long shop- 
ped. 

The sovereigns, in the name of the general interests 
of Europe, had been able to compel France to give up 
the fruit of her protracted and sanguinary contests ; 
those who, in the same name, had united Holland and 
Belgium, might, in a similar character, have dictated 
to the other parts of it a regenerative plan, and, in con- 
sideration of a benefit of such general extent, forced 
those who opposed it to be silent. We do not under- 
stand how they could have denied their authority in 
some instances, when they acknowledged it in others. 

Tiie sovereigns collected at Yienna were, in point of 
fact, Europe. They were so recognised when they 
fought for it. How could they be refused this title after 
victory ? The war had been of the most extraordinary 
nature. The coalition had not been less so. The union 
of so many flags, astonished with their new fraternity, 
was it no more than an ordinary circumstance? and the 
Congress, which was the result of the combination of so 
many elements opposite io their character and unknown 
to every established rule, was it only an assembly in the 
ordinary course of European transactions ? No ; the 
Congress was a tribunal that formed an exception to 
the general rule, unique in its kind, and intended for 
causes and circumstances as unique : and, as the nature 
of every judgment is that it should be correspondent to 
the nature of the cause, it follows that the Congress 
possessed all the powers that the nature of the cause 
and the circumstances could confer on it for the general 
benefit of Europe. The Congress was not the chamber 
at Wetzlar; nor a commission of the empire. We should 



Congress of ViennUo 83 

degrade it too much if we compared its character to that 
of the Congress that made the peace of Westphalia. 
The jurisdiction of the one is as far as it is from that of 
the other, as the objects that engaged the attention of 
that assembled at Munster were different from those 
with which that at Vienna was occupied. We cannot 
render sufficient justice to the grandeur of the charac- 
ter assumed by the Congress at Vienna. Tiiis, perhaps, 
it did not do itself; and it appears not to have suffi- 
ciently known the extent of its power, and the object 
of its mission. When Europe was tranquillised by the 
peace of Westphalia, and when at last its inhabitants 
perceived the Aurora of those days of repose that for 
thirty years had flown before them, they did not ask of 
the Congress the right of disposing of this or that ter- 
ritory, to cede to the catholics that which had been pro- 
testant, to the protestants that which had been catho- 
lic; but they thanked them for having, by the establish- 
ment of general order, and independently of their pri- 
vate views, at last assured their repose, and that of 
their descendants. It acted with a view to the fu- 
ture. 

Did not the Europeans interrogate the Congress at 
Vienna in the same manner on the subject of the use it 
intended to make of such a portion of sovereignty? but 
they demanded if, after so many storms, there was at 
last to be a calm ; if, after so many agitations, there 
was at last to be repose ; if, after so many changes, 
there was at last to be permanence ; if, after so many 
spoliations, there was at last to be a security for pro- 
perty; if, after such uncertainty as to the employment 
of life, there was at last to be assured positions and 
certain indemnifications for what it costs to obtain it? 
They demanded not only under what governments, in 
what social order, they should live ; but, if at last there 
was to be a certain government and social order, under 
which they could live ? Because, for twenty-five years, 
they had not known how they had lived ; and, if order 
was not to be restored, what European was there that 



8^ Congress of Vienna. 

corild say under what laws he, with his children, was 
destined Jo pass his life ? 

Hear, nm\ do not douhf: the truth of it, the language 
that Europe addressed to the Congress — language which 
indicated the high rank wiih wiiich it had heen invest- 
ed. From the summit of i.arope viewing, at one coup 
d^mil, the times past, present, and to come, it ought 
only to have thought of the order of things most con- 
sistent with the good of the whole ; of tliat system 
which would have given most stahility to the present, 
and which opposed the strongest harriers against those 
future changes that in the course of time are ever in- 
troduced. That the nohle motives to this establishment 
should have been offered to Europe under those impos- 
ing colours that general principles always communicate 
"—principles that have uniformly the effect of possess- 
ing themselves of men's minds, and producing an obe- 
dience to its dictates by the surest of all ways, convic- 
tion ; that they should to this have added consolatory 
declarations in favour of humanity, such as the aboli- 
tion of practices, as contrary to good sense as general 
order; then the work was complete, and left in the. 
human mind a durable solace ; and the Congress would 
have dissolved itself amidst the acclamations of all Eu- 
rope. 

It appears also that the Congress has not sufficiently 
appreciated the dangers attached to the prolongation of 
discussions on certain questions. Europe is no longer 
that Furope that it was when ten years were spent in 
negotiations at Munster and Osnahiirg. The times are 
changed. Then no one occupied himself with public 
affairs. They were confined to a few heads. Thfe 
people awaited the decisions, and complied with them. 
Then there was not a public paper in all Europe, no 
political union ; now Europe is filled and covered with 
them. 

At each political movement, the mass of private in^ 
terests begin to operate and place themselves in motion/ 
The times do not regulate their steps by the scale^ that . 



Congress of Vienna, 85 

it pleases the actors on the political theatre to prescribe 
to thera. They go on without the assistance of the latter, 
and soon outstep them in their career : also, they are 
not long before they find themselves a great distance 
from the point of their departure ; and when they fancy 
that they have reached the goal, they appear in such a 
light as to be no longer known. This happened to the 
Congress at Vienna. 

While it exhausted three months in order to parcel 
out Saxony; to dispose of Genoa; while it multiplied 
it« fetes,* the enemy was on the alert, and, by his sud- 
den appearance, changed the face of affairs, and com- 
pelled the Congress, surprised at having been so long 
engaged on a subject foreign to that which was the ob- 
ject of discussion, to reassume that situation at Paris 
which it had occupied about a year before. The tardiness 
and hesitation evident in the proceedings of the Con- 
gress, the divisions which reigned there, the complaints, 
of which many of its acts had become the subject in Eu- 
rope, formed part of the elements of the attempt made by 
Napoleon. Happily his calculations, tiie children of his 
ordinary illusions, were, as they have been in a thousand 
other occasions, found to be erroneous; but it is no less 
true, that he reckoned on that part of the conduct of the 
Congress which he discovered was defective, and that it 
had furnished him with additional hopes. Napoleon 
perceived that public opinion had withdrawn its sanction 
from the Congress ; from the heat of the disputes, the 
issue of which was ever certain, it had ceased to excite 
attention. In fact, it was very singular, and at the sara© 
time highly worthy of observation, that the Assembly, 
which had the power of sovereignly deciding the fate of 
princes and states, no longer inspired the least interest. 
The Congress was permitted to act; nothing it did was 
contested ; but it no longer engaged the attention of 
Kurope. It was necessary that Napoleon should reap» 
pear, to give it a sensible life and the power of speech. 

* See what the Prince of Ligne said on this occasion. 



86 Congress of Vienna, 

In some measure it was resuscitated, inasmuch as the 
actual dispositions of men's minds required a degree of 
attention in the manner of conducting affairs, and dif- 
fered from that which other times would have permit- 
ted. 



CHAPTER X, 
Of the real Spirit ivMch actuated the Congress, 

As soon as the true public European spirit ceased to 
influence the Congress, the selfish or personal interests 
obtained an existence : with them appeared all the 
claims, all the questions of right and of fact, all the 
comparisons of losses and reparations, the times past, 
the times present, and those to come. The barrier bro- 
ken, the inundation commenced. 

This we have seen occur; and not to discover it were 
impossible, in the line of conduct the Congress thought 
proper to pursue. 

It had established two distinct species of principles, 
relatively to persons and to things. The first were dis- 
tinguished by the most generous liberality ; and it was 
not without a lively emotion of gratitude for the spirit 
in which these honourable and reassuring stipulations 
were dictated ; it was not without singular satisfaction, 
at the proofs it afforded of the real progress of civilisa- 
tion, that we have remarked the care which was taken 
to solace and consolidate the fate of individuals ; to ex- 
tend the general security by a total forgetfulness of the 
past, by the extinction of all the causes of injury : the 
only way to restore order among men, and dispose 
them to live together in a social state. The Congress 



Congress of Vienna. 87 

has the honour of having banished every species of re- 
action, — that scourge produced by revolutions — -that 
element of revengeful hearts and contracted minds, and 
which is only calculated to enable vengeance to suc- 
ceed to vengeance, to render men irreconcileable with 
men, and to present, in every country where such a 
melancholy system shall prevail, the appearance of that 
spectacle which Spain has exhibited ; which has been 
offered to France, and of which there is too much rea- 
son to fear there will be experienced an eventual tri- 
umph. 

The Congress at Vienna may be considered as the 
conclusion of that which had signed the treaty of Paris. 
Its political principles appear to have been, 

First, To secure Germany from any new acts of su- 
premacy on the part of France, and to prevent the lat- 
ter from making use of Germany either against herself 
or against others. 

Second, To keep in reserve certain vacant territo- 
ries, as a common fund, whence they might draw such 
indemnities as it should be necessary to apportion. 

Third, To stipulate for the establishment of consti- 
tutions, in which the people should discover a respect 
paid to their understandings, and a better guarantee for 
the future. 

Fourth, To re-establish, as far as possible, each so- 
vereign in his possessions ; in only requiring sacrifices 
for the general benefit, and assuming legitimacy for the 
basis of the restitutions ; and considering it as the prin- 
cipal title to the restoration of the so long violated or- 
der of Europe, and the conservator of that order^ which 
it was the great object of the Congress to establish. 

These views were distinguished by their generosity 
and elevation. To acknowledg;e it, is a source of satis- 
faction : but were they, at the same time, sufficiently 
extended, whether in themselves or in their applica- 
tion ? Were they, in every point of view, adapted to 
the decisions of the Congress ? This it is which we 
have now to examine. 



88 Congress of Vienna, 

The first part of this plan is evidently marked in the 
precaution they have taken to place, at the gates of 
France, apparently as sentinels, 

First, The King of the Low Countries. 

Second, The king of Prussia ; who, by his posses- 
sions behind the Meuse and the Rhine, and by those 
which, with a view to these precautions, have been giv- 
en him on the Moselle, supports it in the first line. 

Third, The German Empire, guardian of the for- 
tress of Luxembourg. 

Fourth, Austria, by the cession of Mentz, and of 
parts of the departments of the Saar and Mount Ton- 
iierre, which formerly belonged to France, and which 
extend the territories ceded to divers princes, called to 
occupy them from many parts of Germany. 

The intention of confining France within strong and 
more efficient barriers than those in which, by the ancient 
order of Europe, she was kept, is particularly marked in 
the near approach of Austria ; for, by this arrangement, 
the rule is violated that the two states appear to have 
made at the treaty of Campo Formio, of keeping at as 
great a distance as possible from one another, in order to 
prevent those quarrels that their contiguity had so often 
produced. Except it has been done with this intention, 
we cannot see why Austria, so magnificently treated in 
Italy and in Illyria, should have been allowed to acquire 
so great a territory, and at so great a distance from the 
body of the monarchy, and with which these stray 
(epaves) provinces can have no connexion. But it is 
evident that it was intended to place the keys of Mentz 
in powerful hands, and to load France with the weight 
of all Germany, joined to that of the kingdom of the 
Low Countries and of Great Britain, who will never 
separate itself from the latter state, more peculiarly its 
work, and who will always be ready to protect it against 
France, as a father would defend its child. France, sur- 
rounded as she will be by all the military powers of 
Germany, will, at no very distant period, find herself 



Congress of Vienna. 89 

enclosed ; and slie, who hitherto has been so vain of 
her triple rampart, will, for the future, have to witness 
the circumstance of heing as firmly enclosed by her 
fortresses, as heretofore she has experienced that which 
has enabled her to make so powerful an offensive and. 
defensive use of them. By this arrangement France 
loses all political importance on the Continent. Twice 
has she been taught, and by severe experience, that this 
renowned rampart of fortresses, in the actual state and 
number of the European armies, availed her nothing : 
it is to be observed, that it is on the weakest part of 
France that the forces of Germany will always press : 
for it is on the higher Meuse and the Sambre, which 
is the most feeble part, and through which an approach 
can be most easily made to the capital. This more 
clearly demonstrates the intention thus indicated. 

Lord Castlereagh declared, in the parliament of 
Great Britain, that the scheme for bringing France and 
Prussia so nearly into contact, by the establishment of 
the latter between the Meuse and the Rhine, was to be 
dated from the time of Mr. Pitt, and that it was aa 
idea of that illustrious minister. Whatever may be 
the respect due to the opinions of that celebrated man, 
it is impossible not to recognise a spirit in this plan 
truly anti-Gallican, but still not less anti- European. 
One danger is often resorted to from the fear of ano= 
ther. 

Occupied as Mr. Pitt had been, for so many years, 
by a contest with France, whose power he saw increas- 
ed and strengthened by the very game that would have 
ruined so many other states, he devoted his attention to 
the discovery of means proper to raise a barrier against 
France ; and he lost sight of Russia, of whom he then 
endeavoured to make an use in his eff'^rts to restrain 
his enemy. Therefore he laboured to divide that which 
was, and which, for the general benefit of Europe, 
should have continued to be united. This minister well 
knew, that to be neighbouring and hostile to each other, 
■was, with states, gyngnimous : and, in this view of 

M 



90 Congress of Vienna. 

things, lie perceivetl no better method of substituting 
jealousy, for the friendship that had so long united 
Prussia and France, than making them border one on 
the other. 

This was a political idea of no very high character ; 
it embraced but a short period, while those of a more 
correct nature embrace space and time. In his own 
time Mr. Pitt was unable to see his ideas realised ; and 
perhaps it is at this moment, when it has been fully ac- 
complished, that it would have been to him a source of 
regret: for the intellectual light of a character, so su- 
perior as was that of Mr. Pitt, may reappear after a 
short eclipse, and replace him in that situation whence 
liis pressing political wants had sometimes driven 
him. 

But, in providing so well for the preservation of Ger- 
many from new invasions on the part of France, the 
Congress has forgotten that nothing whatever has been 
done in its behalf against those irruptions with which 
ilussia, in her turn, may menace her. Look beyond the 
Vistula, and here we shall find that she touches on 
Germany. The defence of the latter is weakened by 
the parcelling out of Saxony, which in its actual con- 
dition is only fit to be engaged in interminable quarrels 
with Prussia. 

The Russian fleets are able to threaten the German 
states of the Baltic, on which the French marine can 
never, land. In this state of things there are many 
dangers ; and, unfortunately, nothing has been done to 
counteract them. 

We feel convinced that the Congress has been ham- 
pered by the privileges of which all the great powers 
availed themselves, in order to obtain the peculiar ob- 
jects of their convenience. The cause was not fully un- 
derstood before the discussions commenced : therefore, 
the decisions could only be made upon objects of a se- 
condary character, and powers of an inferior order. 
Making use of the privileges of the strong and the 
powerful, Russia went to the Congress with the Dutchy 



• Congress of Vienna. 9JL 

of Warsaw retained beforehand. On lier side Austria 
retained Italy. Prussia did the same with Saxony. 
Surely England would not have permitted a discussion 
on the subject of Malta, Heligoland, and the Cape of 
Good Hope. In this situation of possessions, put as it 
were hors de cause, and the chiefs of the Congress 
pleading with their hands full, the latter could not any 
longer give a liberty and latitude to its discussions; 
but, on the contrary, they were confined to a very nar= 
row circle. 

It was evident that as soon as all those powers, who, 
before they had formed the coalition, had treated sepa- 
rately, should come to compare their different treaties, 
in order to produce a general agreement, they would 
find themselves in a state of embarrassment. Most of 
the princes did not understand how to save any thing: 
before they had put themselves to the expense necessary 
to their common safety, or even that of their persons, 
they had made new conditions. The King of Prussia 
made his treaty at Kalish. Naples had secured a con- 
vention that gave it an increase of 400,000 souls. 
Denmark^ its treaty at Kiel. After these and many 
others come the mediatises, Prince Eugene, and all 
those who on the preceding confusion had experienced 
losses. 

Of course, the Congress always retained that essen- 
tial and primitive quality, that rendered it a crucible, 
in which all the treaties were to be melted down and 
re-cast, in order to be rendered co-existent with the 
general good. From this circumstance it followed that 
all that preceded the Congress should have been con- 
sidered in the shape of a preliminary to the Congress 
itself, in which all the interest and all the opinions 
should form one general interest ; and public spirit act- 
ing at one and the same time, for all and in all. With- 
out this method, at each instant the Congress would 
have encountered new difficulties, and some of them 
would have remained without solution. 

It was equally clear that the plan adopted by the 



9S Congress of Vienna. 

Congress, calculated, perhaps, to procure a short re- 
^ pose, difl not naturally create a durable order, in 
consequence of the general lassitude rendering the 
idea of tlie benefit arising from quiet very lively, and 
requiring that they should be satisfied with it. This 
momentary happiness did not prevent them feeling, 
with an equal degree of vivacity, on the subject of the 
future, the difficulties that must eventually result from 
the dispositions made by this Congress. It is true that 
this species of lassitude, which makes us accommodate 
ourselves to every thing tlse rather than that state of 
things which had excited and had produced such in- 
convenience. It is this poignant pricking at the mo- 
ment, of which Bacon speaks : but, in a short time, 
\ the dispositions become changed, the idea of past evils 

is effaced, and gives rise to that of present inconve- 
niences ; which, in their turn, make us seek for repara- 
tion with a similar ardour. Doubtless this is the fate 
that will attend the deliberations of this Congress. We 
sigh after repose. In the system we pursued, we ima- 
gined that we had obtained it; soon we shall feel 
that there are inconveniences ; then will arise regrets, 
and all the sentiments ever naturally accompanying 
them. 

The difference between the Congress at Westphalia 
and that at Vienna, consists in the circumstance, that 
the one bad created a system, the other had formed only 
parts and proportions ; the one built a perfect and dura- 
ble edifice ; the other, a mere foundation. 

When Europe, delivered from the torment she had 
experienced, shall begin to feel the effect of its new 
condition, then will she clearly perceive the inconve- 
nience of the false position in which she is placed; then 
will she experience the necessity of a change, and these 
distressing sentiments will cost her new sacrifices, sa- 
crifices that a better order of things would have render- 
ed unnecessary. 

The acquisition that Russia has made in Poland has 
deranged every thin^. It has rendered every wise com- 



Congress of Vienna. 93 

biuation impracticable. It has added to the viev/s of 
asjgrandiseinent that Austria may have formed. In fact, 
what in the Congress could have been opposed to Rus- 
sia, after she had been permitted to make such rapid 
strides, and to menace the whole body of Europe? 
Therefore, Austria found herself at liberty to take pos- 
session of the major part of Italy : another great de- 
parture from the system that has for its object the safety 
i)f Europe. But Prussia could not remain a passive 
spectator of all these acquisitions ; and, as not to in- 
crease in proportion to our neighbours is in fact to de- 
crease, it was necessary that she should, on her side, 
obtain compensation, and the means of an equilibrium. 
Hence, every where have we beheld the parties seeking 
for indemnities. 

By the increase of the territory of Russia in Poland, 
Prussia wholly lost the great proportion of the Grand 
Butehy of Warsaw, which had belonged to her. 

By this arrangement she found herself exposed to the 
first attack of Russia : therefore she directed her atten- 
tion towards Saxony. In this arrangement she beheld 
two circumstances. 

First, An indemnity. 

Second, A means of resistance to Russia by the prin- 
ciples of adhesions that its occupation would give to 
the diflferent parts of her monarchy. 

Whatever may be the amount of the personal inter- 
ests contained in this system, it was not less European 
than Prussian. It corrected two great errors in the geo- 
graphical situation of Prussia — the division of her 
states by the intevposition of Saxony, and her exten=. 
sion of dominion towards the Meuse. The latter is an 
arrangement that has been allowed contrary to all esta- 
blished principles, whether for Prussia, France, the 
Low Countries, or Germany. That which is inconve- 
nient to the whole world can be good for no one. 

That Prussia should be re-established in the whole 
of her possessions in Germany and Poland, and Cleves, 
except at a very remote period^ the natural key of HoL 



9-i Congress of Vienna. 

Hm). This even was conformable to the principle of 
the Congress ; that then if Prussia should have wished 
to make an attempt on her neighbours, they had put 
her in mind of the laws of good neighbourhood, all the 
world would have applauded the act; but, that she 
should remain despoiled of all her former benefit, and 
prevented deriving any new one, whilst her powerful 
neighbours and ancient rivals gratified themselves with 
every object pointed out by their conveniences :— was 
Ity in good truth, to be supposed ? 

In leaving Saxony in a state of division substituted 
for that of total destitution, with which it at first was 
menaced, the Congress did at one and the same time 
too much and too little, as we shall soon have occasion 
to demonstrate. In the despoiling of Saxony, it esta- 
blished the monument of a contradiction of that princi- 
ple of legitimacy which they had laboured to establish. 
Sovereigns should not be despoiled of their territories 
from mere motives of convenience ; they could not be 
Judged, as has been said with much reason, and with 
jnany marks of approbation, by the plenipotentiaries of 
France. But, is it not to despoil to take the half? Does 
not the violation of principle, which protects property, 
commence with the thus taken half? But is it not to 
be condemned^ without being judged^ to lose the half of 
one's property ? 

This very principle has been equally violated with 
regard to the republic of Genoa, This country, with 
the difference in its situation from that of Venice^ con- 
sisted merely in the fact, that it had made no part of an 
anterior treaty. It passed directly from its original 
state of independence into that of a French province. 
It might, therefore, return into its ancient condition, 
without injuring any particular pre-existing interest : 
on the contrary, it might have been made the means of 
producing satisfaction. Instead of this, it has been 
given to the King of Sardinia, who has lost nothing; and 
who with this coiuitry is not rendered stronger ; for it is 






Congress of Vienna. 95 

not Genoa, small or great, that makes Sardinia a pow- 
er, nor a defence for Italy. 

The Congress has not been more prudent in the dis- 
tribution of the indemnities granted to the Queen of 
Etruria and to her son. If ever plunder assumed an 
odious character, it is surely tliat to which this branch 
of the House of Bourbon has submitted. It has been 
immolated on the altar of a system erected for the over- 
throw of the throne of Spain — it has been overcome by 
the grossest perfidy. Force has arrested her ancient 
dominions, without her having committed any wrong, 
or having given her consent. By the treaty of Fon- 
tainebleau, signed the S6th October, 1807, the treaty 
that laid open all the roads for the attacks upon Spain, 
this unfortunate family was called upon to receive a 
part of Portugal, which was to be divided between this 
Queen and the Prince of Peace, as an indemnity for 
Tuscany. All this was but a lure, in order that it 
might be made to cover the project then ready to be 
put into execution against the court of Spain. In des- 
pite of its principles, the Congress neither gave it its 
original or its second apanage. It has been given back 
to Lucca, and has almost been placed upon a level 
with Prince Ludovisi, the former proprietor of the Isle 
of Elba. 

A crowd of petty princes, from all parts of Germany, 
are made masters of the territories in the ancient de- 
partments of the Saar and Mount Tonnerre. There 
is no principle of adhesion between the old and the 
new states. There is not an atom of political calcula- 
tion in this arrangement. Sovereignty is distributed 
like common property. This latter part of the proceed- 
ings of Congress partakes of that lassitude, as well as 
of that haste, in public affairs, that is by no means pro- 
fitable ; and which occasions us to pass from one sub- 
ject to another, and to get rid of an affair rather than 
to bring it to a conclusion. 

These observations might have been extended ; but 
those circumstances that we are about to explain will 



96 Congress of Vienna. 

be sufficient to show the spirit that reigned so decidedly 
in the Congress, and to establish a just comparison be- 
tween it, and that with which it had been presumed to 
be inspired. The latter has been analysed in the pre- 
ceding Chapter. 



CHAPTER XL 



Of the Establishment of that Political System that ex- 
isted in 1789. 

But some persons will say, what is the use of so ma- 
ny questions ? Why seek elsewhere for a new order 
of things ? we have one ready to our hands. When 
that which existed before the year 1789 appeared, and, 
to use the expression, offered itself, ^nd it was so good? 
To restore every thing to its place, and keep it there, 
would be at once the chastisement of past innovators, 
and occasion despair in those that shall arise in future. 
Very well. This system was good ; but, it is no more. 

Ancient Rome, Thebes, Tyre, Carthage, were also 
very fine towns, and their inhabitants found in them 
very commodious houses ; but, unfortunately, they are 
no more. Time, ever in progression, has disposed of 
them, and on their ruins has established others, or per- 
haps none whatever. This simile will apply to the 
present times. 

If at the proper time Europe could have been left 
as she was, and ourselves with it, all the world would 
thereby have gained twenty-five years of repose ; but, 
iu this prolonged contest, it has been shaken to its 



Congress of Vienna, 97 

foHutlations. Here its system has been shattered, 
there it has been divided— elsewhere it has been ag- 
grandised, despoiled, amended : one part, esteemed 
living and active, has been found torpid and dead ; — ■ 
another, that had been believed to be dead, is disco> 
vered to be full of nerve and vigour. Those which 
were united, have experienced a tendency to separa- 
tion : — those which were separated, have a similar dis- 
position to union. Such a one, for which some per- 
sons solicited a dismissal at once, was almost in a si» 
tuation to give it to others instead of receiving it from 
them. 

Here we discover the foundation on which it was in- 
tended to fix the bases for the re-establishment of the. 
former system. 

In this case, what would have become of all the 
princes who have received the brilliant titles with which 
they are invested ; of the events which this order of 
things would eiface? Almost all the sovereigns of Ger-= 
many have no other titles than those conferred on them 
in latter times, which have furnished to them a great 
part of tlieir territory. Who is it that has decorated 
some princes of the House of Bourbon with their titles? 
Who has made kings of Etruria? Who precipitated 
from the throne the old King of Spain? Will the out= 
rages of a favourite legitimate the overthrow of a legi^ 
timate monarch ? How long since is it that an insurrec» 
tion of body-guards would merely give to the sou the 
right of sitting on the throne of the father? Is it not 
the Prince of Peace that they have dethroned in the 
person of Charles the IVth? To whom will they give 
the kingdom of Sweden? To the uncle, to the nephew^ 
to his son, to one who has been chosen by the nation ? 
This country should burst asunder the ties recently 
created between it and Norway. Russia should re- 
turn Finland, as a revolutionary spoil. England rcr 
store Malta and other possessions, by means of which 
she governs the seas. Austria return peaceably to 
the Low Countries, which she left go short a. time 

N 



98 Congress of Vienna. 

since : in return, she should give up Venice, which 
she coveted for so many years. Great and Little Ma- 
gusa and France, Lucca and Prussia, ought equally to 
seek for the places that they once occupied, and there 
remain. 

This system will prove itself most excellent when 
we shall be able to make the world stand still, and 
communicate to it that immovability that, in their igno- 
rance of the laws by which it was regulated, our fa- 
thers attributed to it : but, as long as it continues to 
turn on its axis, its political movement will be co-exist- 
ent with its physical movement, and will not continue 
in a lesser degree, because there is the want of better 
regulation. 

Surely it is with very laudaWe views of public or- 
der that such ideas are proposed. But a mere wish for 
order is not sufficient. Means to ensure it must be 
found ; and, above all, great care should be taken that 
we do not open the road towards order by a general dis- 
order. 

It would also be as impracticable to re-establish the 
former order in Europe in general, as it would be to 
effect it in each particular state. The changes having 
had the same relative proportions, the same resistances 
would arise ; in the one instance they would lead to 
disputes among the citizens ; in the other, to strife and 
confusion between the states. 

Let us reflect, whether it was from an attachment to 
the pursuit of pleasure, or motives of insensibility, or 
those of idleness, that governments have ordered so 
many of the victims of the subversions that have taken 
place, to attend at the feasts of which their spoils are 
to pay the expense ? Who could have entertained this 
barbarous idea? On the contrary, the most enlightened 
one that could have directed them, would have been 
that which establishes in public order the means of in- 
demniflcation for rights that have been subverted, and 
provides a safeguard to protect those remnants that 
have been collected after the convulsion. None but a 



Congress of Vienna. 99 

fool, like Xerxes, would have whipped the sea after a 
storm. On the contrary, common sense would direct 
you to assemble all those that have escaped shipwreck, 
and assure to them future enjoyment. Have those who 
would order the world to make these easy retrogres- 
sions, beheld the descendant of St. Louis, of Henry 
the IVtli, of Louis the XlVth, in the midst of a le- 
gislative body, occupying a chair ? What is become of 
old France ? Where are the venerable clergy who only 
diverted their attention from another life, but to con- 
vey to their fellow citizens counsels or succour that 
might aid them in this ? Where is that nobility, the 
flower of the chevaliers of France and the warriors of 
Europe, as brilliant in war as they were at the tourna- 
ment, at once the asgis of the throne, and the frontier 
barriers of the state ? Who has taken place of those 
humble representatives of the cities that Philip intro= 
duced six hundred years ago for the first time, and who 
appeared before him on their knees? 

What should have determined the monarch, on his 
return to his newlj'-recovered states, to proclaim, that 
those great changes that had raised the tempest, and 
against which in other times he would have armed 
himself, were his work ? What would be his own opi- 
nion of himself in so singular a situation? Europe and 
France thought, that in sacrificing at once the remem- 
brance of the country of their forefathers, and the af- 
fection with which the heart of its citizen should be 
filled, he would exhibit to the world an act of heroism 
and intelligence ; that hii proved by this, that he knew 
how to command himself as well as others ; that, as a 
just estimate of men and things, he knew how, by an 
equal distribution of strength, to participate with all 
parties ; all of wliich he found in a state of equality. 
Let them apply to politics the lessons of superior wis- 
dom, and in a short period the world will not expe= 
rience any more irritation, in consequence of its 
having the good sense to confirm the spirit of the 
times. 



100 Congress of Vienna. 



CHAPTEH XIll 

France. 



France appeared at the Congress in a very singular 
■atttitude. ' ^.,..-...-.-..-.- ... ...-....._,. — 

*'^''he government that had just been destroyed had 
armed all Europe against itself. It had received pt^ee 
in the midst of its capital; and those whom it had Ren- 
dered its enemies, who had not abused the rightgiven 
them by the success of their armS;, had determined its 
new situation, if not with generosity, at least without 
rigour. It must be allowed, this non-exercise of seve- 
rity may, after all that has passed within the course of 
the last twenty-five years, pass for generosity. If the 
allies, masters of Paris, have done nothing for France, 
they have done nothing to injure her; as, in fact, was 
in their power. They did not come to Paris Jforjhe 
benefit of France, in order to render her powerful, to 
consult her inclinationsj, as well as the fooleries exist- 
ing there ; but to redress themselves for the blows they 
had received, and prevent their recurrence in fufure. 
The allies had to reconcile i\m permanent interests 
of Europe, with the rank that France was to occupy 
among the other powers. She was therefore replaced 
within her ancient frontier, without acquisitions and 
without loss. From having been an enemy, she had 
become an ally. She appeared in an assembly of paei- 



Congress of Vienna. lOi 

fieators, by the side of those to whom she had but just 
before been hostilely opposed. 

This change in her attitude was altogether retnarka- 
ble, if any thing, after v/ bat we have witnessed, has the 
power of creating astonishment. It does honour to the 
minister with whom the plan originated, and it has giv- 
en a new face to the affairs of the country. This trait 
of ability has not been sufficiently noticed ; and it well 
deserves to be so. 

But, although sitting hy the side of other nations, 
and marching apparently in equal pace, she was far 
from finding herself in a situation parallel to that of the 
four great powers that formed the Congress, 

Victory, after having been so long since her exclu- 
sive property; this evanescent goddess, who governs 
the world, had conferred on others those favours, of 
which, during an uninterrupted course of years, she had 
been so exclusively prodigal to France. With her va- 
nished that domination which had been the fruit of her 
patronage, which was too forced for France, and too 
bitter for others, for the remembrance of it to remain 
long on the mind. That power which France still pos- 
sessed, was in some degree that of concession. Her 
fate was fixed. The alliance existing between the pow= 
ers of the first rank, to a degree unexampled in the 
history of states and sovereigns, left no hope of draw- 
ing from their rivalry any of those advantages that ge- 
nerally is the main object of ahle diplomatists. The 
great powers had given a sort of tacit consent on the 
subject of their respective pretensions. Hence, the 
game which France had to play out of doors was very 
difficult. The circumstances of her domestic situation 
rendered that which she had to manage at home not 
less so. France did not conduct herself at the Con- 
gress at Vienna as she once did at that of Munster. 
Every thing was in a very different situation. Louis 
the XlVth did not arrive in his country after the gene« 
ral subversion of his states. His throne has not been 



103 Congress of Vienna, 

established by people, whose name at that epoch was 
scarcely known in Europe. 

This fortunate alteration has restored to France her 
ancient sovereigns. They returned there with senti* 
ments the most truly French, but with the sentiments 
of old France only« It was ever to be recollected, 
that they were the descendants of St, Louis and Henry 
IVth who re-appeared in the land of their fathers : but 
all which has been done out of the country, may ap- 
pear to them not to belong to it. Hence, no efforis will 
be made to retain it; and it will cost nothing to get 
rid of all the personal part of the power and glory 
which did not form a portion of the ancient personal 
glory of the crown of France, and which was all that 
they aspired to reach. Besides, it is comprised in the 
inventory of a revolution, the principles and the acts 
of which are too odious, and from which they have 
suffered so much, that such a conduct may be necessa- 
ry to avert the dangerous consequences that may arise. 
Therefore it was without resistance, as without chagrin, 
that they have renounced every thing unknown to an- 
cient France. 

Hence, France, from the peculiar circumstances in 
which its government had been placed, was in an infe- 
rior situation. But these were not the only reasons. 
There were others, that contributed in many cases to 
weaken its operations. 

Thus, France was, in the first place, completely dis- 
interested on her own account. She entered into an 
arena, open to the pretensions of all other powers. 

In the second place, she appeared disarmed, while 
the other powers assumed all the apparel with which 
power and victory could clothe them. 

In the third place, she could not inspire that degree 
of consideration and confidence that results from the 
disposition which a state can make of its means, when 
its establisliment is solid, complete, and protected from 
any appearance of convulsion. The government of 



Congress of Vienna, 10^ 

France was but just established. It was altogether 
new. Nothing withia the kingdom had yet acquired 
the necessary degree of consistence. Calculations 
might have been made upon errors likely to exist on the 
part of the government ; upon discontents on that of 
the governed ; upon factious dispositions still existing 
in too great a number of minds ; on an extremely doubt- 
ful fidelity on the part of the troops : in a word, it was 
possible to discover an immense multitude of causes of 
confusion, the melancholy prognostics of which have 
been too correctly realised. 

In the fourth place, France, surrounded as she was 
by this number of embarrassments, could not possibly 
show any active dispositions. Besides, it is well known 
that it was not more in the power than it was agreeable 
to the temper of the government ; and every menace 
that she made could not affect the states which were 
freed from those incumbrances that on every side ham- 
pered and paralised the movements of France. 

In the fifth place, the great powers who were the 
arbiters of the proceedings of the Congress proceeded 
with au unanimity, of which the annals of diplomacy 
do not offer an example; and evinced an union of 
spirit, of which it was impossible to break or detach a 
single link. Hence, every trivial alliance with France 
was interdicted ; its position deprived it of the advan- 
tages springing from that great political resource, 
and confined her to those exertions that her own 
strength would enable her to make, in the face of 
those powers who pressed upon her Vi^ith all the weight 
of their quadruple alliance. Let us search for the rea- 
sons. 

Alliance may exist, when the parties to the treaty 
not only understand each other on certain points, but 
when their most important general interests harmonise. 
But an alliance cannot exist when there is an under- 
standing only on some points relative to other parties 
altogether independent, and when they depart among 



iOi^ ' Congress of Vienna, 

themselves from points of the first importance to their 
own interests. There can be no alliance in this in- 
stance, nor where there can be no acting in common, 
nor when the parties cannot with equal plenitude of 
power dispose of all their means. 

This is precisely the situation in which France found 
herself with regard to Austria, to Russia, and I may 
say with regard to all Europe. 

France could proceed, in concurrence with Austria, 
in her opposition to Prussia, for the protection of 
Saxony — in opposition to Russia, who was project- 
ing the appropriation of Poland to herself: but she 
must differ from Austria, showing, as that power did, 
a disposition to convert Italy into an Austrian pro* 
vince ; to consolidate the new throne of Naples ; and 
to substitute in the Dutchy of Parma a race hostile 
to the princes of France. France might also pro- 
ceed, in concurrence with Grreat Britain, in her oppo- 
sition to the designs of Prussia on Saxony ; but cer- 
tainly she must withhold her consent to the idea pos- 
sessed by her, of supporting the new sovereigns of Na* 
pies and Parma, and retaining various possessions, the 
occupation of which rendered the whole marine of Eu- 
rope her prisoner. 

Still more might France agree with Prussia, des- 
tined as she was to serve as a barrier to Russia, and 
to balance the power of Austria. But how could this 
unanimity be maintained co- existent with the idea of 
Prussia occupying Saxony, and the country compris- 
ed between the Meuse and the Rhine? Thus all the 
states, experiencing the effects of simultaneous repul- 
sion and attraction, advanced and retreated at the same 
moment. 

On the other side of the question, France, to obtain 
an alliance, could not offer guarantees comparable to 
those that other powers could tender. This difference 
of situation arose from the state of her interior. 

For example, the governments of Austria and Great 



Congress of Vienna. 105 

Britain had not experienced the same checks that had 
afl'ected that of France. 

In the two fornjer countries, every thing is establish- 
ed, and proceeds, in all iis branches, according to an 
old, determined, and fixed impulse. We should per- 
haps be understood as going too far, even if we were 
not to say whether France did offer the same pledges to 
this association. But every association receives its form 
and consistence in proportion to, and in consideration 
of, mutual safety; and who could wish for those which 
are so opposed in their character, and so deprived of 
strength and guarantee, that they only hold out the 
prospect of either becoming a burthen, or a brokea 
reed. 

From this confined situation of her affairs proceeded 
the system pursued by France. Her play was forced. 
Let us see how she acted her part. 

Here a new distinction presents itself, which it i^ 
very necessary to mark. She dates her birth from the 
situation of the princes occupying the throne of France. 
In remounting it, they found every thing, both within 
and without, altogether changed. 

In some places, the members of their family were re- 
placed by their more fortunate competitors. 

On one side we see every thing the result of favour 
or dislike : on others, a prince, allied by blood, had his 
existence threatened, They would of course feel for 
him the most tender interest. The ties of blood would 
give strength, and be productive of favour, to the claim 
of justice. 

Besides, many illustrious but modern names were 
found. This new fraternity cannot be acknowledged 
without great difficulty. 

If a dangerous neighbourhood should inspire too 
well-founded fears, the principal care would be to re- 
move the cause of alarm. 

Hence, French policy is discovered to be mid-way 
between national and private interests ; between the 
affections of the prince and those of the family. 



100 Congress of Vienna. 

In setting out from these principles, it will be found 
that French influence ought to attach itself to them. 

First, To banish every thing that gave umbrage to 
the family reigning in France ; and consequently the 
principal views would be directed against the despot 
confined in the Isle of Elba, and against all that were 
attached to him. 

Second, To prevent a young plant taking root at 
Parma, whose shoots would always be abhorred and 
dreaded. 

Third, To purify those thrones that are found so 
much degraded, and that they should be restored to 
that species of possessors who are regarded as fit only 
io occupy them. 

Fourth, To establish an order of things in which 
their own preservation shall be provided for, and to 
render it the principal dogma of the new policy to be 
adopted by the kings of Europe. 

Hence would proceed the great efforts that would be 
made to bring back to Naples and to Parma the princes 
of the royal family of France. 

From this circumstance, we may learn the necessity 
of renewing that alliance with Sweden that a sound 
policy should prescribe to France, as more necessary 
than it was in the days of Gustavus and Oxenstiern. 

We may also see the propriety of connecting toge- 
ther all the princes who, during the course of the revo- 
lution, have experienced the same sufferings as those 
of France, and demand for them a justice, the effects 
of which should be useful to them. 

France, not demanding any thing of the Congress, 
and at once willing to cover the inferiority of the part 
she had to play — an inferiority very new to her, — was 
obliged to depart from that policy in which she no lon- 
ger occupied the principal place, in order to recur to 
those general principles, the discussions of which be- 
longed to the whole world, and to assume the merit of 
justice of peace to Europe, in place of being able to 



Congress of Vienna. 107 

show herself its regulator. It was this circumstance 
that produced the connexion between France and Aus- 
tria and Great Britain, and her avowed interference in 
favour of Saxony. By this means she formed a princi- 
pal member of the opposition in favour of Saxony. We 
cannot but render our homage to the force and the con- 
stancy with which the French ministers have defended 
a prince worthy of all the respect that the purest virtue 
commands ; worthy, from his misfortunesj of the interest 
of every sensible heart. 

But in the extraordinary circumstances in which Eu= 
rope discovered itself to be placed ; above all, with 
the new dangers that the near approach of Russia creat- 
ed ; was it well to enter into the discussion of the pre- 
sent and future interests of Europe, by merely consider- 
ing Saxony as the properly of the king, and to show 
what in this grand question was the side termed legiti- 
mate, and on which they coold uot^ if a proper feeling 
existed, suffer an attempt to be made ? 

There were many means of avoidiog oSencej which 
we shall point out in a succeediog chapter. 

Is it necessary on this account to avoid the diseus=. 
sion of the high consideratiosis that eommaaded the ab- 
solute union of Saxooy to Prussia ? BesisleSj, what have 
ig of SaxoQjj in reslorlog him but 



the half of Ms sisbjects aod bis states? Aslillle for his 
virtue as his power. 

We may perceive that Fraaee mad© in© 
that resistance to the nnmn of Italj aa^ Austria which 
she made to that of Saxooj aail Frossia. However, 
interest in favour of Fraijee^, aatl ialeiresl in favour of 
Europe, were two very different Ihliigs. The misfor- 
tunes of Italy were ffiucia greater anil SB©re affecting. 
France, haviog a wish t© make im& of Aastria against 
Prussia in favour of Saxoojj was obliged to be tender 
on the score of Ilalj. This is ili© eSl^et of ih^t two- fold 
system that we have before intlicated. It will perhaps 
be said^ that there was^ on the pari of Austria; an 



10S Congress of Vienna^ 

opinion so decided with regard to this question, that 
the attempt to alter it would have been ineffectual. 
France was more fortunate in the attempts she made 
for the restitution of the dominions belonging to the. 
pope, and to procure an act, called for by justice, 
and by the rank that Catholicism occupied in Eu- 
rope. 

Since the peace of Westphalia, France has adopted 
the maxim of exercising a species of protectorate in 
Germany, in opposition to the House of Austria. Sure- 
ly she was correct in endeavouring to renew it with the 
princes and the sovereigns of the empire. 

It is necessary to remark, that there are in Germany 
three species of states. 

In the first rank, are Austria and Prussia. 

In the second, the ci-devant electorates, erected into 
kingdoms. 

In the third, the petty princes or states, of which 
there were a great number, and which occupied each 
their sovereignties, or territories, throughout the whole 
extent of the empire. 

France had to consider these states in various points 
of view. Thus she could not regard Austria in the 
same light as Prussia. 

The former is always sufficiently powerful in Ger-- 
many. Sometimes the latter is not enough. France 
ought no longer to view in the same light the two states, 
so various are their circumstances : thus it is not her 
province to mingle in disputes perfectly personal be- 
tween Austria and Prussia. These two powers possess 
in themselves the means of balancing each other. The 
interference of France only begins to be reasonable 
wljen either of the two should abuse its superiority, in 
order to destroy the balance, and lay too heavy a bur- 
then on Germany. Till then they ought to remain un- 
interrupted. 

But France should have a constant and habitual con- 
nexion with the powers of the second order : they form 



Congress of Vienna. 109 

a barrier against the two former states, if they should 
have any idea of encroachment. France did this for 
Bavaria in 177^ ; and she ought always to be ready to 
do it again for all the states of the second order in Ger- 
many, without any distinction as to Protestant or Catho- 
lic. All these states are equally necessary to the safe- 
ty of the empire and that of France. 

With the states of the third order the case is widely 
different. They do not possess any strength; they can 
lend no support to any one; they always require it 
from others. They do little else but render the ma- 
chine more complicated, and serve to embarrass its 
movements. 

We have no hesitation in saying, that, with regard 
to them, France should change the system which she 
has hitherto observed, and did actually support in the, 
Congress. ' The difference in the events of the times 
is the reason. When Austria alone governed the Ger- 
man empire, the existence of this multitude of petty 
princes, who formerly were the sources of anarchy, 
might have had an useful result. Then too many ob- 
stacles could not be created, nor too many impediments 
offered. At that period France was the only support 
of the empire against Austria, and the only corrective 
of the diminutiveness of the German states. But, since 
the elevation of the Prussian power ; since the states 
of Bavaria, of Wiirtemberg, of Hanover, have acquir- 
ed such an extent of territory, and increase of influ- 
ence, Austria is sufficiently balanced. The smaller 
states cannot act against her ; it is much more prohable 
that they will act for her, and that Austria will endea- 
vour to create among them an honourable dependence 
upon her, and support them against the states of the 
second order. 

The interests of Germany and France equally require 
that this country should he relieved from the load of all 
the little sovereignties that hitherto have been of no 
use but to their possessors^ and they should be incor= 



110 Congress of Vienna. 

porated with the states of the second order. This, in 
proportion as Russia approaches Grerraanyj will become 
more necessary. The appearance of this new danger 
should have induced a system of fortifying the German 
powers, whose care and defence of their common mo- 
ther is prevented by the consequences arising from the 
existence of these little states. These powers are, with 
Austria and Prussia, the rulers of the second order. 
The reader should not be tired with the repetition of 
the opinion, that, since unconquerable Russia has taken 
such a position as to enable her to knock at the doors 
of the German empire, every thing has undergone a to= 
tal change in that country. Instead of being interest- 
ed in the preservation of the petty states, it is rather 
for their abolition that we should now seek ; for the 
simplification, rather than the complication, and for the 
concentration, rather than the dispersion, of sovereign- 
ties, in order to be able to oppose the largest njasses to 
those masses by which they are menaced. New dan= 
gers ought to lead us to seek for new safeguards. The 
French system has been very erroneous on this subject. 
But, where its error has been at once the more remark- 
able and the more melancholy, is in the mode of oppo- 
sition to Prussia ; to give effect to which, she uniformly 
paid such great attention. 

In tlie system which France should establish be- 
tween herself and Prussia, there are two invariable 
principles : alliance and distance. The one gives ef- 
fect to the other. 

Hence, throughout the whole course of the Con- 
gress, France only laboured to put Prussia at a dis- 
tance, and force her to withdraw to her own frontier. 
In short, to prevent that which at one and the same time 
precluded alliance, and created hostility. This fatal 
mistake arose from the warmth with which France de- 
fended Saxony: for it is impossible not to remark, that^ 
in proportion to her exertions in favour of the latter 
country, she increased the difficulties she 



Congress of Vienna. Ill 

eoimter in her opposition to the approach of Prussia to 
the frontiers of France. There have been seen a vast 
number of notes on the subject of the incorporation of 
Saxony ; but we have seen none on that of the incon- 
veniences likely to arise from the establishment of Prus- 
sia, at the very doors of France, between the Meuse 
and the Rhine, as well as between the Rhine and the 
Moselle. 

On her arrival at the Congress, France found Saxo- 
ny abandoned by Prussia and Russia, abandoned by 
Austria, neglected by Great Britain, and by the princes 
of the empire, who offered her nothing but vain regrets. 
In this distressing situation it was that France under- 
took her cause. We have seen her spend four months 
in setting all the springs of her policy at work to in- 
crease the number of the defenders of Saxony. 

This system appeared alike contrary to the interests 
of France, of Saxony, and of Europe. 

First ; To France it occasioned the loss of the most 
necessary of her allies, and indeed it changed her into 
an enemy. It brought near to her a power that ought 
ever to have been kept at a distance. It has embittered 
the minds of the Prussians^ whose animosity, so active 
and fatal to France, has proceeded, in a great measure, 
from their resentment on the score of an opposition that 
frustrated the object of their most ardent desires. If 
France remained silent on the invasion of Italy by Au- 
stria, why did she make such a noise on that of Saxony, 
of importance to the liberties of Europe, while that of 
Italy cut it up by the roots ? 

Second ; The preservation of Saxony in its integrity 
being demonstrably impossible, but little service could 
be rendered to her by attaching so much importance to 
a question, the most fortunate result to which could 
not preserve her from being torn in pieces. Saxony 
should either have remained undivided under its own 
king, or that of Prussia. In fact, why was Saxony dir 
vided into two parts ? Whom can the half of Saxony, 
by the side of Prussia^, of Austria, and of Russia, serve 



lis Congress of Vienna. 

or assist? In its state of consolidation it would have 
been lost amidst these three colossal powers. What 
situation will it occupy in its actual condition? Was 
it not a line present to make to the King of Saxony, 
that of his dominions thus parcelled ? Was it very con- 
solatory to his subjects that some Saxons should remain 
to Saxony and its kin^, while they had to hehold their 
separation from their fellow-citizens, and the division 
of their country ? Was not the King of Saxony a very 
liappy prince in the midst of the shreds of his states, 
and the wrecks of a family, in which he could only 
calculate on hearing sighs, and witnessing a flow of 
tears ? Was royalty well defended, most honoured, by 
being left on the half of a throne ? Let us be candid. 
It is not the title that makes the king, but the power. 
We can never conceive how they can reconcile the re- 
spect due to royalty, with the trifling consideration as- 
signed to it in some countries. The throne should be 
raised so as to be seen from afar, and afford an impos- 
ing spectacle ; in all countries it comes within the defi- 
nition given of it by Napoleon : *' Four bits of wood 
and a velvet carpet.^' 

Third ; Tli\p opposition made by France to the de- 
signs of Prussia in favour of Saxony ; which, taking 
from the latter the means of defence against Hussia, 
has deprived Europe of its principal defensive point. 
It has now become the great interest of Europe. The 
colossal power of Russia has changed all its rela- 
tions : a circumstance of which we must never lose 
sight. 

From all this, what has resulted ? That Prussia has 
been rendered hostile to France ; that she is weak- 
ened in the principal part of her defensive system 
against Russia ; and that Saxony has been rendered 
useless either to its own sovereign, who no longer 
possesses power; or to Prussia, who can reckon, for 
no great length of time, on the good will of the 
Saxons. The Congress has taken too good care to 
catechise them on the subject of the union with 



Congress of Vienna, 113 

Saxony, in order that the Saxons may, in a few years, 
become good Prussians. Of the probability of this 
alteration in character and feeling, we may judge by 
the circumstances that happened at Liege. 

Nothing has occurred to show the proceedings of 
France in favour of Denmark. This state, that, in the 
midst of the troubles of Europe, has, for a centurj% 
exhibited an example of all the civil virtues, modera- 
tion, temperance, justice, and economy : this country, 
which has only rendered herself remarkable by the 
peaceable conquests she has made, by means of her 
industry and commerce^ beheld herself on a sudden 
enveloped in disputes, to which she was, from her cha- 
racter and habits, as great a stranger as by her geogra- 
phical situation. There never was a more noble nor 
,more impartial conduct, than that which Denmark ob- 
served during the whole course of the revolution : how- 
ever, she has lost her Norwegian dominions, and the 
very important point of Heligoland. There has only 
been assigned to her the shadow of an indemnity, not- 
withstanding the promise she received. The idea which 
has been evinced of re-erecting the Hanseatic towns, 
has frustrated the wish she had for two of them, Ham- 
burgh and Lubeck, which, from their locality, appear- 
ed to belong to her. We cannot finish this chapter 
without paying a tribute of respect to the French iega« 
tion. It was in a situation surrounded with difficulties : 
inheriting all the errors of French diplomacy for the 
last twenty-five years, although it was altogether a 
stranger to them : surrounded by jealousies^ coalitions 
always directed against it, it v/as necessary for this 
legation to conduct itself through all these dilSculties, 
and it has effected it with so much ability as to produce 
the remarkable circumstance, that the power, by far 
the least considerable as to strength, should have oc- 
cupied a most distinguished situation ; and the voice 
which had been esteemed the least able, should have 
brought Europe to listen to it with the greatest atteu- 

p 



114; Congress of Vienna, 

tion : so well did the French negotiators know to re- 
compense France for the difficulties of the part they 
had to act, by their personal consistency and distin- 
guished talents. 



It has been asked, if it would not have been correct 
if France had not appeared at the Congress? This 
question gives rise to a vast number of considerations. 
If her absence had, in some measure, compromised her 
dignity, perhaps it would have served interests no less 
precious to her. 



CHAPTEH XIII. 

Great Sritain. 



Great Britain has gathered the friiits of her perse- 
veraoce, of. 'hy,r.' courage^ of lier patriotism, awd oT'^11 
.|jer sacriiices. This power offered a most intere^ng 
spectacle at the period when she constantly proportion- 
ed her means of defence to the attacks which she had 
to sustain ; attacks of the most violent nature to which 
she had ever been subjected ; and finished, by victo- 
riously releasing herself from a contest, in whicli„s,he 
no longer contet^ded, as in former ones, for a pre-e^ii- 
nence of honour, wealth, or power ; but, for an exist- 
ence. For it is impossible to deny that the existence of 
Great Britain was threatened from the opening of the 
war in February 1793, to the 31st March 1814^. Dur- 
ing this whole space of time, a single day did not pass, 
in which Great Britain was not devoted to a complete 



Congress of Vienna. 115 

overthrow. First, revolutionary, daring the whole pe- 
riod of the reign of the Convention and the Directory. 
Second, politically, as late as 1814. If the mutiny at- 
tempted in the British fleet had succeeded, what would 
have become of Great Britain ? If the invasion should 
have succeeded, Great Britain would have been divided 
into three parts ; England, properly so called, Ireland, 
and Scotland. In this case, we may also assert that 
India would have been lost, her maritime power de- 
stroyed, and every species of influence from without, 
overturned by the neighbourhood of two governments 
hostile to her and friendly with her enemies. 

But a good genius watched over her, and this good 
genius was that of her adversary. His attacks were so 
direct, so menacing, that the nation could refuse nothing 
to the minister, who, on his part, had only to show it 
the precipice into which it was wished to plunge her. 
Napoleon furnished the British ministers with talent. 
They required no other art than to oppose him with all 
their strength, than to seek on all sides for enemies, to 
whom he wished to abandon her. Their game was pre- 
determined ; and it is truly curious to observe that Mr. 
Pitt either knew not how, or could not do* what minis- 
ters, regarded as very inferior in capacity, have accom- 
plished, by having one regular plan ; namely, that of 
defence. 

Thus threatened with annihilation, Great Britain has 
saved herself. 

Great Britain has regenerated Portugal. By her 
means, the troops of a country that never have enjoyed 
any reputation, have been brought to the level of all the 
troops of Europe. The defence of Lisbon, the sacrifices 
of the inhabitants on all the roads that the enemy had 
to traverse, form prodigies of resignation on the part of 
the Portuguese. 

* what would Mr. Pitt have said, who so many times declared in Parlia- 
ment that no attack, direct on France, could meet with success, if he had 
seen the British Guards standin.e^ as sentries at the Louvre, and the Russians 
at Paris, twice in the course of fifteen months I 



116 Congress of Vienna, 

Iq the co-operation of Great Britain, Spain found 
powerful means of nourishing and prolonging her re- 
sistance ; although in the usual state of this nation her 
triumph would have been as sure. Such is the nature 
of the country, that Spain never can be conquered. 

Great Britain has covered Europe with her gold : 
whoever has asked for subsidies to fight Napoleon has 
obtained thera ; to her largesses she has placed no 
bounds. This uniformly appears. Similar to an athletic 
mau;, who, from the impetuosity of the combat, docs 
not experience the severity of his wounds, Great Bri- 
tain arrived at the end of t!ie war without ever casting 
a look of regret on the load with which slse had bur- 
theued herself. But the battle is over, the account must 
be made up ; and then it is that Great Britain will be 
able to form an idea of the extent of her sacriftces, and 
the injuries it has produced to her in all her social re- 
lations. Thus have we beheld her engaged in the abo- 
lition of taxes disliked by the nation. She has endea- 
voured to discover how she can make the products of 
her soil compete with those of other countries which 
have a tendency to reduce her markets. In Great Bri- 
tain there is a contest between the cultivator and the 
consumer, A combination of wealth and taxes have so 
raised the price of produce, that it is impossible to con- 
tinue a competition with the Continent, in the most es- 
sential articles, and a portion of manufactured commo- 
dities.* 

Great Britain was beforehand with the Congress in 
retaining Malta, Heligoland, the Isle of France, the 
Cape, and other points, well calculated for. her conve- 
s nience, on the coasts of South America and India. She 
,' bore a principal share in the erection of the new king- 
dom of the United Provinces. Profiting of this opportu- 
nity, that hitherto has rarely offered itself to any one, 
Great Britain has obtained more than at any time she 
could have promised herself. She has realised that of 

* See the disciiss'ions in Parliament on the Importation of Foreign Wheals, 
and the debates on the Reduction of the Prices of Farms, 



Congress of Vienna. 117 

which her greatest politician, William the Third, had 
but a glimpse. 

The erection of Hanover into a kingdom did not 
directly concern Great Britain. It was intended to 
provide for the situation of the future sovereigns of 
Hanover, in the event of the throne of Great Britain 
not being occupied by the House of Brunswick, and 
thus ensure their remaining equal to the Electors raised 
into the rank of Kings. 

Hence, Great Britain arrived at the Congress in the 
most favourable condition, that of not having even one 
demand to make. Thus detached from all personal in- 
terest, nothing remained for her but to watch over the 
general welfare of Europe. To this affair she does not 
appear to have paid an efficacious attention. She seems 
never to have interfered but on private objects, and ne- 
glected the ensemble and the elevated views presented 
by the common interests. 

The language of Great Britain has varied. 

If the documents that have been permitted to be seen 
contain the truth, Great Britain seems at first to have 
acceded to the incorporation of Saxony with Prussia. It 
was only in consequence of the remonstrances made in 
Parliament, and the suggestions of France, that this 
opinion took another direction. 

Its system as to Italy appeared also to have under- 
gone many variations : for the proclamations of Lord 
William Bentinck announcing to the Genoese the re- 
turn of their independence ; and that of General Dal- 
rymple, when he transferred the country to the King of 
Sardinia, are widely different. 

In these two acts we discover a primary and personal 
direction yielding to action foreign to that foreseen, and 
which could not be mastered. A fine field of glory for 
his country and himself lay before the British negotia- 
tor, if he had proclaimed the necessity of a general and 
definitive arrangement of all Europe, as having been 
the object and the recompense of the labours of Great 
Britain : she who has boasted of having been the 



118 Congress of Vienna, 

saviour of Europe. In leaving it a prey to the disor- 
ders to which it was devoted by the Congress, she has 
only performed half her work. 

To prevent Russia from passing the Vistula, Austria 
from invading Italy, fortifying Prussia, extending the 
United Provinces to the Rhine, emancipating Spanish 

America such were the objects of British policy. 

The negotiator who should have conveyed into Great 
Britain stipulations so assuring for the whole body of 
Europe, would have been rewarded with the thanks of 
. all the correctly thinking men of his nation, who must 
have regretted the recurrence of such a vacillating sys- 
tem, and of the loss of so much time, in order to pro- 
duce the result which we now witness. 

The cries of the British Opposition made the British 
Cabinet alter its ideas with regard to the incorporation 
of Saxony. Why did it not exert itself more for the 
liberties of Europe, and endeavour to assuage the af- 
llictions of the Italians ; afflictions much greater than 
those of the Saxons ? 

The French legislature felt its humiliation, in being 
forced to preserve a silence with regard to those very 
objects upon which its British rival was called to give 
so unbiassed an opinion, and to exhibit itself using so 
frequently, and in so honourable a manner, this valua- 
ble prerogative ; one, from the exercise of which, na- 
tions should never in the slightest degree desist. The 
glory of the Opposition would have been complete, if 
to the just indignations that it testified against the ex- 
changes and the transfer {transvasemens) of people, 
which present, a spectacle so afflicting to humanity, it 
had added a superior solicitude for the general interests 
of Europe, which evidently were compromised by the 
Congress. 
/"'"■x^For some time Great Britain appeared to give its 
/ support to the King of Naples, and to the sovereign 
Lthen reigning in Sicily. The fact has been attempted 
to be discovered in opposition to itself, from the ambi- 
dexter interference between two interests diametrically 



Congress of Vienna. 119 

opposite to each other. The reproach is without foun- 
dation. 

Nothing is so essentially opposite as that system un- 
der which Naples and Sicily form two distinct states. 
For a long time they have rather been separated than 
united. However desirable may be the union of these 
two countries, nevertheless we may say with truth, that 
Naples could exist alone as well as Sicily Naples 
can do still more ; she can contribute to the general be- 
nefit of Italy, of which she may preserve the balance, 
and to that of Europe, which is interested in keeping 
the southern part of Italy from the domination of those 
who prevail in Upper Italy. 

Great Britain has done nothing that can imply any 
contradiction in her conduct. It could not have parta- 
ken of the character of duplicity, as in the case of her 
having contracted at one and the same time engage- 
ments with the Court of Naples against that of Paler- 
mo, or with that of Palermo against that of Naples. 
It is clearly to be seen that there was a medium between 
the two, that of guaranteeing to the two courts their 
respective possessions. This Great Britain did. The 
enterprise of Napoleon, and the war of Murat, have 
given another appearance to affairs in this quarter ; and 
every thing has been replaced in a situation more con- 
venient for the two countries. 

It is to be remarked, that Great Britain is the only 
power, the aggrandisements of which have not been 
submitted to the deliberations of the Congress, and re- 
ceived its guarantee. Russia, Austria, and Prussia, 
submitted theirs in Poland, in Saxony, and in Italy. 
France and Spain were out of the question ; the situa- 
tion of the former having been determined by the Trea- 
ty of Paris, and the second having experienced no 
change in her situation. But the power of Great Bri- 
tain had experienced an immense increase by the occu- 
pation of Heligoland, of Malta, of the Cape of Good 
Hope, of the Isle of France, and many other points on 
the coasts of India and America : of all these acquisi- 



ISO Congress of Vienna. 

tions, not a word was said at the Congress. Was it 
forgetfulness on the part of tlie former, or an act of su~ 
premacy on the part of Great Britain ? 



CHAPTER XIV, 

Frussia. . 



A CENTURY has beheld the birth, the elevation^ the 
fall, and the resurrection of this power. 

H he is no w ranked- among thQse oOhj^^te^ ia 

Kurope, and constitutes one of its first necessities. 

When, in consequence of a surprise rather than a de- 
feat, Prussia yielded at the first shock to France, it 
was curious to observe to what cause her fall might be 
attributed. A distinguished writer goes so far back as 
to impute it to Frederick the Great. 

It was precisely to Frederick the Great that she has 
to attribute her salvation. 

We are ignorant of all the patriotism concealed in 
the hearts of the Prussians, of all the desire of ven- 
geance with which they burned, of the undefiled ho- 
nour that had remained so long attached to their flag, 
since the death of this sovereign. We have seen with 
v/hat oceans of blood they have washed out the affront. 
We are ignorant of that mass of intelligence, existing 
from Koningsberg to Berlin. There was the resource. 
With what vigour has not this state been restored to 
its rank! It is this which has redressed Europe. It 
is General D'Yorck, disobedient to his sovereign, but 
implicitly obedient to the spirit of the nation. With- 
out Prussia, indignant at its abasement, burning with 



Congress of Vienim. 131 

ardour, and the desire of regaining its rank, Hussia 
could not have pushed so far the pursuit of the victory, 
that the madness of her enemy and the severity of the 
climate had granted to her. Without Prussia, Austria 
would have still hesitated, and Vienna would not have 
witnessed the meeting of the Congress. 

In this assembly, Prussia had to obtain its establish- 
ment, and to assure its safety for the future. Ties of 
the most friendly character united the sovereigns of 
Prussia dnd Russia. These friendships are those of an- 
cient times between demigods. 

In her present state there are three Prussias : Prus» 
sia in Poland, Prussia in Germany, Prussia on the 
Meuse and the Rhine. Her boundaries are not to be 
defined. Prussia powerfully feels this truth. She has 
enemies on all sides. No where has she frontiers. 

At Memel and Koningsberg, Russia presses her by 
the point of her states. Austria cuts through the cenire 
of her possessions. Every thing which goes out of 
Bohemia, is in an instant in the heart of Prussia. 
France touches on the extremity of her dominions, se- 
parated from the heart of the monarchy. She is made 
up of small parcels, on an immense line, without ad- 
hesion and without consistency. The length and nar- 
rowness (maigreur) of Prussia occasioned Voltaire al- 
ways to compare her^o a pair of garters. She resem- 
bles the houses at Berlin that are only built on one side 
of the street. Even now she has hut one aspect towards 
Europe. 

France, allied to Prussia at Berlin, becomes her ene- 
my on the Meuse. She would open the war against 
her by the occupation of that division of her monarchy 
situated between the Rhine and the Meuse. 

Russia, occupying Poland, would commence war 
against her on the Oder, at the very gates of her capi- 
tal. 

Austria shuts her in as closely, hy all the passes into 



ISS Congress of Vienna. 

It is rarely that we see assembled and accumulated 
such embarrassment. 

Prussia powerfully contended for the complete incor- 
poration of Saxony. She appeared to be convinced of 
the inconveniences arising from the dispersion of her 
difterent provinces, and of those that would spring from 
the want of connexion among them. She felt that her 
approach to France would invert the nature of her re- 
lations with those countries, and occasion her to pass 
from the state of friendship that had hitherto existed, to 
that of enmity, the inevitable result of being such near 
neighbours ; for to be neighbouring and inimical, are 
synonimous between political bodies. 

Prussia could not flatter herself that the friendly re- 
lations existing between her sovereign and that of Rus- 
sia, would become permanent between the two coun- 
tries, and pass from age to age to Russians and Prus- 
sians. It is not on the affections existing between men, 
but on their permanent interests, that the relations be- 
tween states can be founded in a durable manner. The 
arrangements should be made independent of such tran- 
sient harmony. Prussia wished to fortify herself for the 
future, and combine her forces as much as possible. 
She lost more than a million of inhabitants when she 
ceded the Dutehy of Warsaw. She had to recover, as 
well as consolidate, every thing. Such were the two 
branches of her system. We shall see whether or nut 
she obtained her object. 

During the latter periods of the last age, Prussia 
found herself at the head of the Protectorate of the 
North of Germany. It extended to every part of that 
country that was attacked. For instance, the war of 
Bavaria in 1778? and the line of demarcation in 179^. 
In both cases, Prussia acted without distinction of 
either Catholic or Protestant league, and afforded equal 
protection to both. 

The states of the North of Germany, such as Meck- 
lenberg, Hanover, Hesse, formed a species of federa- 



Congress of Vienna. 1S3 

tion with her. Since the war of 1756^ these allies have 
scarcely ever been separated. 

Until the revolution, and during the greater part of 
its course, the object of Prussia was to maintain the 
integrity of the German empire, to cultivate a good un- 
derstanding with France, and oppose Austria. 

At present every thing is changed for her, as well as 
for the others, and Hussia is the cause of this change. 
In fact, in proportion as Russia shall approach Europe, 
the whole world will experience new cares. It is now 
only that empire, and the dangers consequent to her 
aggrandisement, which will now occupy the public at- 
tention. 

Hussia is not like the other states of Europe, that 
may be beaten and compelled to withdraw. Russia will 
not retrograde. Late experience will for a long time 
prevent any attempt of this sort. 

When we pass under the yoke of a people of Europe, 
we remain in Europe. Under that of Russia, we be- 
come the half of Asia. This is a truth that cannot be 
too often repeated ; and one, the force of which Prussia 
will soon most assuredly acknowledge. 

She forms the first line in the way of this torrent. 
Through Prussia it is that its course lies. The road, 
through Austria is more out of the way ; more diflieult 
to pass, in consequence of the mountains of Bohemia 
and Hungary. But Prussia has no defence. The Oder 
does not commence to be a barrier till below Breslau. 
Berlin is between it and the Elbe. Prussia Proper re- 
mains in the rear of the monarchy. All in that quarter 
is cut off from the body of the state. 

Hence, Prussia is ever in great danger ; and, there- 
fore, is not the bulwark of Europe. Of course, it is the 
interest of Europe to strengthen her, whether by addi- 
tions of territory, or whether by facilities that shall 
connect the detached parts of the Prussian monarchy. 
It is the interest of Europe to deny nothing to Prussia; 
on the contrary, to give her, and facilitate all the ar- 



124 Congress of Vienna. 

rangements that shall enable her to procure strength, 
and a rapidity of movement. Prussia is, in fact, the 
guardian power of Europe : for her that kingdom is, on 
the Oder, what the King of Sardinia was at the foot of 
the Alps for Italy. Prussia never will be sufficiently 
strong, not for herself, but for Europe, against the 
Colossus of the north. In this we learn what, in the 
actual state of things, cannot be too often repeated, nor 
too often become an object of consideration. Unfortii-v 
nately, in her own neighbourhood we see nothing that 
we can give to Prussia. All the situations are occu- 
pied; and surely Prussia covets that of no one. She 
would not wish to displace the sovereigns of Mecklen- 
berg, nor those of Hanover, Brunswick, or Hesse. 
Saxony alone remained, that would servo to strengthen 
her. The federation of Lower Germany could not in the 
slightest degree aiford the necessary forces to Prussia. 
All the inconveniences arising from dependencies are 
known ; their fears, their delays, their jealousies. 
Those who have to act with them, can never inspire 
them with the same opinions, nor make them do what 
is necessary. Every thing must submit to those at the 
head of affairs. 

Prussia will be feebly supported by the Confedera- 
tion of the North of Germany. In future, it will be diffi- 
cult to calculate on a perfect agreement between her, 
and what remains of Saxony, as an independent state. 

The acquisition of Swedish Pomerania adds hut 
little to the real strength of Prussia. It was merely 
well that she should possess it, as it was proper that 
Sweden should give it up. 

Prussia is EQ loiigec„tli,e enemiy of A^^^ ; and, for 
the future, Mussia will make them allies. ToFmeFjea- 
lousies have disappeared before greater dangers; for in 
this instance the contest is not, as it formerly was, about 
some trifling pre-eminence, but for existence itself, uni- 
formly menaced by Russia. 

Under a proper system, Prussia ought never to have 



Congress of Vienna. 1S5 

passed the Rhine ; for by that step she hecomes the \ 
enemy of France, an alliance with whom should be the 
pivot of her policy ; not on the score of Austria, as^ it 
formerly was, but on that of Russia. The Prussians 
and the French are no longer destined to fight on the 
plains of Rosbach or Jena, but to afford mutual suc- 
cour and prevent the Russians meeting them in those 
places. 

Prussia ought not to multiply her affairs, nor render 
her system complicated. Russia is preparing business 
for her sufficiently important. 

When Holland was divided into two parties, Prus- 
sia lent an efficacious succour to the House of Orange. 
This intervention will be no longer necessary. A bet- 
ter order of things is established in tliat country. But 
if the state to which the Orange family has been called 
should be attacked, Prussia ought to fly to her succour, 
and not to permit her to lose the smallest portion of her 
territory. In its turn, this country should not permit 
the slightest encroachment upon Prussia. 

It was essential for Prussia, as well as for Europe, 
that the new state of the Low Countries should at once 
have received its full and perfect developement, a de- 
velopement that would have carried it to the Rhine and 
the Moselle, which are its natural limits. 

It ought ever to be recollected, that with France 
this state forms the second defensive line of Europe 
against Russia, as she does the first against Great Bri= 
tain. 

The Congress, in opposing itself to the views of 
Prussia on Saxony, and in offering it indemnities or 
possessions that had no connexion with the other parts 
of the monarchy, did not enter into the real spirit of the 
permanent interests of Europe ; whether from former 
jealousies of Prussia; whether interest for an unfortu- 
nate prince or a suppliant nation, discussions contrary 
to the interests of Europe were permitted ; for, in fact, 
it is ever Europe, not Prussia, whose welfare should be 
consulted. For example, it appears that Austria, in a 



135 Co7igress of Vienna, 

consent she gave in the month of October 1814, to the 
incorporation of Saxony with Prussia, prohibited the 
establishment of a fortress at Dresden. In this, she 
acted as the enemy of Prussia, not the friend of Europe 
and of Germany. It is very evident that she only 
looked to the safety of Bohemia, and not to that of 
Germany ; for, in opposing herself to any thing that 
should fortify the line of the Elbe, she would weaken 
the defence of Germany, and leave a chanoel open for 
the torrent rushing from the north. When the Russians 
shall have poured themselves upon Germany, of what 
consequence to Europe and to this country will it be 
that Bohemia has been a little more or a little less 
threatened on the side of Prussia ? Before the war in 
1808, Prussia reckoned on nearly ten millions of inha- 
bitants. It appears that she is now confined to the 
same, perhaps a smaller, population : but if as to nu- 
merical force there is an equality, there is an inequality 
of physical strength. 

For in 1806 Russia did not possess Finland and her 
new provinces in Poland. 

Austria did not extend as far as Illyria and the Unit- 
ed Provinces of Italy. 

Prussia then enjoyed, by the evacuation of the Dutehy 
of Warsaw, a compactness of territory. It is now re- 
placed by a division of the monarchy. Then Prussia was 
not the neighbour of France, as she has since become, 
in the third division, between the Meuse and the Rhine. 

All these considerations indicate the necessity of car- 
rying Prussia as far as the banks of the Vistula. They 
also prescribe the incorporation of Saxony, and the 
placing her at a great distance from France. Then 
would Prussia find herself restored to what ought to be 
lier invariable destination in the actual state of things, 
that of watching the movements of Russia, and guard- 
ing the avenues of Europe. 

This fatal mistake will compel Prussia to keep on 
foot an army much too large for her population and her 
finances. 



Congress of Vienna, i27 

III any war, wlietlier with France or with Russia, 
Prussia must begin by losing part of her states. If 
with France, she must abandon all her possessions on 
the left bank of the Rhine. Prussia cannot defend 
them against France. 

If with Russia, she must abandon all her territory 
on this side the Vistula, for it is cut off from the rest of 
the monarchy, and nearer to Russia than Prussia. It is 
an open country. 

A worse combination could not have existed, and 
consequently a state more painful than that in which 
Prussia has been placed by the result of the Congress. 
However, it must be acknowledged that Napoleon is 
the cause of all this disorder. He has done more inju- 
ry to the north than he has to the south of Europe. 
Let us compare the state of the case. 

The principal feature of his policy was to prevent 
Russia from interfering so much in the affairs of Europe. 
He wished also to exclude Great Eritain from them. 
He endeavoured to drive the one back into Asia, as he 
had aspired to expel the other to the most distant part 
of the globe. He neither succeeded in the former nor 
the latter of these schemes. But if it was not in his 
power to offer a direct opposition to Great Britain, he 
was not equally deprived of the means to contend with 
Russia : not, however, that he could have driven her as 
far back as his ideas had induced him to think was in 
his power ; although he might have raised before her a 
barrier sufficient to arrest her progress. The means were 
ready. These means were to be found in Prussia. She 
then possessed a part of Poland ; she sensibly felt all 
the inconveniences attached to the contiguity of Russia, 
and only required to be put into a situation to preserve 
herself from them. It was the policy of the time. Na- 
poleon had a right to calculate upon it. But, instead 
of making use of what he found ready to his hands, 
what did he not do, after all his false caresses, that were 
continued for four years ? He fell upon Prussia, and 



i2S Congress of Vienna, 

crushed her with the weight of his power. It pleased 
him to create a dutchy of Warsaw with the spoils. He 
gave to Russia part of the Prussian possessions in Po- 
land. He amused himself, if we may so term it, by the 
re-erection of the repuldic of Dantzic. In the war with 
Austria in 1809, he enriched Russia still more, by giv- 
ing her some parts of GalUcia. In short, he began to 
strengthen that which he proposed to weaken. It is 
true, that it was rather loans than cessions he intended 
to make to Russia. The benefits he conferred were 
merely to conceal his perfidy. He fully purposed to re- 
turn, and demand the surrender of these gifts, as in fact 
he did. He sought to make them the foundation of jea- 
lousies between Austria, Russia, and Prussia. But, in 
order to seize these donations from Russia, he at last 
commenced a war^ and the war that ruined him. 

On the contrary, if Napoleon, faithful to the ancient 
system of France, had strengthened the ties which united 
her to Prussia ; if, instead of plundering and humiliating 
her, of harassing her in a thousand ways, he had culti- 
vated a sood understanding; with as much care as he 
took pains to oppress her ; had he done this, he would 
have found in her the barrier for which he sought to the 
power of Russia ; he might have calculated on fiading a 
faithful ally, where he met a sanguinary enemy. The 
King of Prussia would never have left Berlin, nor Napo- 
leon Paris. An important lesson to teach men not to 
direct their affairs on chimerical plans, nor to gratify 
private prejudices, nor the dislike of man to man. It is 
neither by the affections, nor by the contradictions of the 
human mind, that states are to be governed. Napoleon 
detested Prussia. Why, he was at a loss to account. 
The whole conduct of Prussia in the course of the re- 
volution, its constant refusal to enter into any coalition 
against it from the year 1795, should with him have 
served as a guarantee for the goodness of her disposition 
towards France. Well ! he wished to crush her. He 
was pleased in ruining her military reputation, that 



Congress of Vienna. 129 

dimmed his own ; and he went to seek an avenger for 
Europe. But necessity having brought Russia and 
Prussia together, the former being able to consider it- 
self the saviour of the latter, nothing could be denied, 
and Russia has thus remained mistress of all the ar- 
rangements as to Poland — a circumstance as much op- 
posed to the natural system of Prussia as that of Eu- 
rope. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Russia. 



In many places we have had occasion to show the 
dangers with which the uniform approach of Russia 
towards Europe menaces that quarter of the globe. 
Either by the real or silent consent of the Congress, 
we see her crossing the Vistula and touching on Silesia 
and Moravia. By her flanks, by her rear, by all the 
territory that belongs to her, Europe is kept in a state 
of apprehension. 

Hence, Russia has iakea the place of France. Op- 
pression came from the West ; for the future it will 
proceed from the East. Let us explain ourselves. 

Every army purely European is civilised. Every 
Russian army is so in its leaders, and not so in the re- 
mainder of its members. Whatever may have been the 
progress of civilisation in Russia, this distance between 
the chiefs and the subalterns will yet last a long time. 
This is precisely the danger that we have to fear. A 
barbarism, robust and obedient, is always subservient 
to the orders of a refined civilisation. Barbarous hands 
may manage the instruments of the seientifie, and be 
made to use them as well as those of the learned. Rus- 

R 



130 Congress of Vienna. 

sia resembles Rome under the emperors, finisliing the 
conquest of the world by means of Gallic legions and 
German troopers. If the Russians were wholly bar- 
barous and made use of arrows, the danger would not 
be so great. By means of its arts, Europe could pre- 
serve itself: but Russia will make use of the arts of 
Europe against Europe. Education has its effect every 
where. 

What difference is to be perceived between the Rus- 
sian and French officers ? Fifty millions of men, bent 
by the discipline of the North to the obedience of the 
East, are at the disposal of others equal in civilisation 
to those of the most polished character in Europe. It 
is in the establishments of every nature that are formed 
in all parts of Russia, as well as in its arsenals, that 
the chains of Europe are preparing. The creation of 
arts and commerce at Odessa inspire us with more fear 
than Souvoroff with his army in Italy. Armies pass 
away. The arts remain. 

Russia has taken the road {o the south. She advances 
with a brave and robust population, with the instru- 
ments of all the arts, and under chiefs as polished as 
Europeans. 

We have uniformly declared that the Russians are 
barbarians. Ah ! would to God that it were true, and 
so many causes for fear would not exist. It is because 
they become daily more civilised, and their chiefs are 
as advanced in civilisation as other Europeans, that they 
are unconquerable. The Sirelitzers would not have 
found the road to Paris so easy as did the Russian im- 
perial guard. 

Since the occupation of Finland, Russia only comes 
in contact with Sweden on the polar ices. She has dis- 
engaged herself from a troublesome neighbour. 

The tranquillity of the Turks makes her easy on the 
side of Constantinople. They, and not the Russians, 
have occasion for fear. 

Russia borders on East Prussia, and crosses all the 
line of the kingdom of Prussia. Koenigsburg is more 



Congress of Vienna. 13| 

in Russia than in Prussia. She also touches on the 
frontiers of Austria, and, crossing the Vistula, has thus 
established herself in face of the centre of Europe. 
Never was there a prospect more threatening. It ap- 
pears that the friendship and gratitude of Prussia have 
assisted in making these arrangements for Russia. We 
may easily be brought to believe, that nothing can be re- 
fused to those whom we think it our duty to grant every 
thing. It is much to be regretted that their connexion 
has not taken a different direction ; that, losing sight 
of themselves, these august friends have not carefully 
regarded their own states, the time to come, and the so- 
cial body of Europe, and paid an attention to them that 
seems to have been absorbed in personal considerations. 
They would have acknowledged that their states would 
one day experience great inconvenience from the order 
of things thus to remain established ; they would have 
seen that to leave a shadow of liberty to Prussia and to 
Europe, it was indispensable that Russia should not 
cross the Vistula. Here was her limit, and here Europe 
commenced : if otherwise, the war of the independence 
of Europe has terminated by her submission to Russia^ 
The latter did not put herself to much trouble on this 
occasion. 

The engagements voluntarily contracted Vi^ith the 
Poles, did not, in any manner, connect them with the 
Russian empire. She had formed many other connexions 
with Europe, to which she had promised happiness and 
repose ; but never will she safely enjoy them while 
Russia continues to advance upon her with the steps of 
a giant. In vain will they say that the finances of Rus- 
sia are low, and that it is not in her power to go to war. 
But when were her finances good, and when did she not 
go to war? Besides, when there are as many soldiers 
as are to be found in Russia, are not the finances of her 
neighbours exposed to great danger? 

The French supremacy, against which there has been 
such a cry, and with great reason, was far from threat- 
ening the same danger. France may, as has in fact hap= 



iS2 Congress of Vienna, 

penefl, be restored to order. Will this be the case with 
Ilussia? The French nation co-operated in this work, 
although very much against its inclination ; and in fact 
it v'vas only tiie instruaient. On the other hand, this 
system of domination is quite agreeable to the taste of 
the Russian nation. The French never will he attract- 
ed towards the North ; but the temptations that bring 
the Russians to the South are great. 

Hence, it was against the aggrandisement of Russia 
that the Congress should have directed all the powers 
of its intellect, all the force of its representation, and all 
the vigour of its opposition. It would have been in- 
teresting to witness the pleadings of the south of Eu- 
rope, to hear her demanding that its northern districts 
should cease to give causes of alarm, and that they 
should at last be restrained. This would have presented 
a picture very different to that furnished by Saxony, 
and other interests still more trivial. 

In neglecting this capital point, the Congress has 
completely mistaken the true interest of Europe. It 
did not know in what consisted the key-stone of the 
arch of their own work. 

However dangerous might be this establishment of 
Russia on the Vistula, and precisely because it is dan- 
gerous, they should have obtained a barrier at least, in 
fixing it there ; and even then there would not be suffi- 
cient distance between Russia and Europe, The pub- 
lic safety demands that this river should be bristled with 
defences similar to those erected by France in Alsace 
against Germany; and others, which Germany has 
erected on the banks of the Rhine against France. 



Congress of Vienna. 133 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Poland. 



The illustrious Burke declared, that the partition of 
Poland would cost much to its authors and to Europe. 
The prophecy of this great statesman has been accom- 
plished. 

Already has it cost Moscow to Russia : it has cost 
Napoleon his crown : and it is about to cost Europe its 
balance. 

It is very certain that Napoleon, wishing to remain 
master of all the west of Europe, did every thing to 
expel Russia, and drive her back into the east. To ef- 
fect this object, it was necessary to erect a party-wall 
between its two great divisions. For this purpose Po- 
land was destined. The dutchy of Warsaw was but a 
projecting abutment. It had been formed of parts, re- 
covered from Prussia by the treatj^ of Tilsit, and of 
those surrendered by Austria at tile treaty of Vienna 
(1809). Some dismemberments of the Austrian and 
Prussian possessions, such as Byalistock and Tarnopol, 
had been ceded to Russia. They were in tliis state at 
the commencement of the war. This contest has de- 
stroyed the power of the founder of the dutchy of War- 
saw. This dutchy has fallen iuto the hands of his ene- 
my. The grand-duke himself has not been more for- 
tunate. Far from being able to preserve his dutchy, he 
has had much trouble, to preserve a part of his own 
kingdom. This crealjon of the dutchy of Warsaw had 
roused and relumed ail the ideas of iudepeudence im- 
planted in the Polish heart. In Poland they pant to 



13-i Congress of Vienna. 

become oaee more a nation. All classes, every indivi- 
dual, are inspired with the same sentiments on this sub- 
ject. How have they suffered under the new circum- 
stances that have borne down Poland ? The conse- 
quences of the war have placed her wholly at the dis- 
posal of Russia. 

This prodigious increase of a power, already too 
great, injures too numerous and too sensible interests, to 
be long permitted. 

It was attempted to remedy the inconvenience by, 

First; To ceJe to Prussia that part of'^the dutehy 
which was the nearest to the heart of the Prussian mo- 
narchy. The country would have been benefited by 
this arrangement. The Poles bad already had the hap- 
piest experience of the Prussian government. 

Second ; To restore to Austria the neighbouring parts 
of Gallicia, that had been ceded by the treaty of Vien- 
na, in 1809. Cracow had been declared a free tawn. 

Third ; To abandon to Russia all that remained of 
the dutehy of Warsaw. 

Thus, instead of being united, as many persons ex- 
pected, the Poles have been still more divided. 

Fourth ; The Congress has declared that the Poles, 
the respective subjects of Austria and Prussia, should 
obtain a representation and national constitutions, re- 
gulated into their political arrangements, as the powers 
to which they belong shall think proper and useful to 
be established. 

This disposition is conformable to the generous senti- 
ments that have always inspired the sovereigns of these 
countries. In their display of it they have wished to 
find the means of consoling the Poles, in leaving them 
in possession of at least the shadow of their country. 
They entertained the beneficent idea of not altogether 
separating them from those customs which they are able 
to retrace. 

We must easily see what this simultaneous establish- 
ment of constitutions will produce, and that they will 
be necessary to make the Poles bear the yoke more or 



Congress of Vienna, 135 

less patiently. Time alone can decide this question, 
as well as many others ; the agitators of which, when 
they originated them, knew not, and, perhaps, will ne- 
ver witness their solution. 

There were no species of reports that, in the course 
of the negotiations, were not spread on the subject of 
the future destination of Poland. They evidently arose 
from the exaggerated expectations of some ; in the dif- 
ficulty experienced by others of abandoning a hope, that 
attached them to recollections too precious to be surren- 
dered : so long, at least, as there remained tlie smallest 
probability of seeing it realised. The want of reflec- 
tion in the minds of many others, had also contributed 
to give currenc}'^ to the same reports. 

Thus we see that men, who surely only consulting 
the generosity of their own sentiments, (a generosity 
very foreign to the ordinary course of business,) did. 
not hesitate to erect an independent state in Poland, re- 
united into one body by the Emperor of Russia, who 
would thus be satisfietl with having, by such an act, 
obliterated the injustice of her partition. 

Such politicians do not perceive that they reform the 
plan against which this princearraed, the plan that had 
cost him Moscow, and which sequestered him for ever 
from the affairs of Europe, towards which, if he lost Po- 
land, he would have no road : for Poland, in its inte- 
grity, would render Russia an Asiatic power. 

Besides, how is it possible to believe that the Empe- 
ror of Russia would be willing to surrender his finest 
provinces, peopled with seven millions of inhabitants? 
All this was perfectly chimerical. 

It has not been proved that Russia would have cal- 
culated correctly for herself in forming, under her scep- 
tre, a single state of Poland ; for Poland united forms 
a great mass of population and territory. Feeling its 
natural strength, tormented with the hopes of indepen- 
dence, and the desire of reassuming her pulitical exist- 
ence, Poland would have run the risk of reassuming 
lier former turbulence. On their part, those powers 



136 Congress of ViennUe 

who are interested in creating embarrassments for Rus^ 
sia, would not have failed to profit of these circum- 
stances, and again attempt the work of Napoleon. A 
hatred to an author should never be transferred to his 
work. This object never was contemptible : and he 
never entered more fully into the interests of Europe, 
than when he endeavoured to raise a barrier against a 
power, on so many accounts formidable. If other pro- 
jects, proceeding from the same mind, have given the 
world much trouble, this possessed a character widely 
different, and wholly tended to the conservation of Eu- 
rope. 

The preservation of the Dutchy of Warsaw as an 
independent state has also been mentioned. In this case 
we should have more of which we ought to complain 
than rejoice; for nothing was more unfortunate and 
more insignificant than this little state, enclosed between 
the three great powers of Russia, Austria, and Prus- 
sia ; exposed to the conflicts and the wants of this tri- 
ple band of neighbours. 

A general rule : Poland united, or Poland divided 
equally among its neighbours. It is only on one of 
these two conditions that it will serve as a balance for 
Europe : but, under any supposition, Russia should not 
cross the Vistula. If she does, the principle of the 
safety of Europe is violated in a most essential man- 
ner. However, it is the state in which the Congress 
has placed it. 



Congress of Vienna, 137 



CHAPTER XVIL 

Austria. 



Fkom the 22d April, 1793, to the 31st March, 181*, 
Austria has been for more than twenty years at war 
with France. The contest has only been interrupted by 
truces of short duration. 

In this contest, Austria has shown more constancy 
than she has experienced good fortune. According to 
her usual custom, she was always the last of the allies 
that withdrew from the field of battle. Constancy is 
the distinguishing characteristic of this power. She 
hesitates before she contracts engagements ; but once 
made, she tenaciously adheres to them. The same may 
be said of her schemes ; and it is to this pursuit of her 
ideas, in defiance of the vicissitudes of the times, that 
she owes the means of extending and consolidating her 
empire. Austria has participated in the alterations pro- 
duced by the French revolution. It has beheld her 
changiug her power in Belgium for influence in Italy; 
cast aside the imperial crown as a burthen, and abundon 
all her jealousies of Prussia ; from whom no alarms any 
longer spring, but from the North. Austria, as well as 
Prussia, has now no other enemy. 

For a long time Austria felt the burthen occasioned 
by the possession of the Low Countries. This distant 
dependency compromised her with all the world; and 
cost her, in one year of war, more than she produced to 
her in the course of ten years of peace. Austria felt 

s 



i38 CJongress of Vienna. 

all this ; but as she was not accustomed to cede hei* ter- 
ritory for nothing, she sought where she could find an 
equivalent. In 1778» France and Prussia prevented her 
possessing herself of Bavaria. She could not forget 
that she would ever have to meet both these powers on 
her road to carry into effect any project she might en- 
tertain for the invasion of Germany. Italy alone re- 
mained to her. She fell upon that as occasions offered. 
The Treaty of Carapo F(U'nuo gave her all the state 
of Venice. She lust it at Presburg and at Vienna, in 
1809. She has now recovered it, and with it Lom- 
bardy; to which she has also added the Valteline, and 
the Valley of Bormio and Chiavenna. Besides these 
acquisitions, she has obtained the Islands of the Ad- 
riatic. 

Here, then, we behold Northern Italy nearly become 
an Austrian property ; and Austria crushing or protect- 
ing its southern departments. 

Also she prevails, either directly or indirectly, from 
the frontiers of Russia and Turkey, to the shores of 
the Mediterranean. Never, since the separation of the 
House of Austria into two branches, those of Germany 
and Spain, has this house been raised to an equal de- 
gree of power. She has gained by yielding the imperial 
crown, an ancient but useless ornament; a wreath set 
in thorns. She has as little reason to regret the little 
properties scattered in the bosom of the empire. By 
the new arrangement, she has acquired a contiguity 
and consistency as to her possessions that she never 
before enjoyed. Mistress of the shores of the Adriatic, 
from the mouths of the Po to those of the Cattaro, she 
will find in this extent of coasts, and in the possession 
of the Adriatic Isles, immense means for the commerce 
of Hungary and Germany. On the other side, her 
system is very much simplified. In giving up the Low 
Countries, slie has nothing more in common with the 
North, Great Britain, Holland, nor with France. Her 
disputes with Prussia have disappeared, and been 
changed into a common vigilance, as to Russia. On 



Congress of Vienna. 139 

the side of Turkey she has nothing to fear : a nation 
pacific in its character, and which will require a great 
portion of stimulus before it can he roused. Thus, 
in place of the great number of enemies that she for- 
merly had, and of the numerous points of contact 
with other states, Austria has but one, and that is 
Hussia. 

Considering the danger of this neighbour, we may 
continue to ask, how Austria can consent to Russia 
passing the Vistula? for, in crossing it, the latter 
touches on Moravia ; that is to say, she approaches the 
gates of Vienna. Instead of raising her voice, as she 
did, against the incorporation of Saxony, she ought to 
have employed all the strength of her representations, 
all her opposition, and all her means of alliance, to pre- 
vent an establishment, so injurious, and so near to her, 
being formed. In this way should she have employed 
her power. 

After having been free and independent, after having 
entertained other ideas than those which she has been 
permitted to do, it will require great care to ensure the 
allegiance of Austrian Italy, weakened as it is by a 
doubtful fidelity ; and her internal administration will 
be difficult to manage. The number of Unitarian Ita- 
lians are too great not to be an object of alarm. It will 
be necessary that a use should be made of them for the 
administration of public afi'airs, and the tribunals of 
the country. Hence, at home they will be masters ; 
and masters of their own masters. Surely they ought 
to be given a particular constitution ; but it would do 
nothing else than ags^ravate their feelings as to their 
situation. They would only assemble but to speak of 
their misfortunes : and it would be with the Italians as 
it is with the Poles. As soon as there existed a Dutchy 
of Warsaw, then there was no more doubt on the sub- 
ject of independence. As it is the first want, so it is 
the first subject of conversation. 

At a period when every thing was fortunate for Na- 
poleon, Austria formed connexions with the King of 



140 Congress of Vienna. 

Naples. He was determined at any price to have a co- 
operator, and an enemy the less. The possession and 
increase of his states were guaranteed to him. Almost 
to the very end of the Congress there seemed to be a> 
perfect agreement between the two countries. In this \ 
measure, we may conjecture^ Austria as much consult- ] 
ed her policy as her personal affections. In her system | 
of universal dominion in Italy, Austria wished to re-*»^ 
move the House of Bourbon from Parma and Naples. 
The reason evidently was, that Austria having ap- 
proached France, by her acquisitions in Italy, she has 
endeavoured to weaken the opposition with which she 
may one day expect to meet in that country. In that 
case, this opposition will come principally from France ; 
for the House of Bourbon reigning at once in Naples 
and at Parma, the Austro-Italian states are placed be- 
tween the possessions of this house ; so that some day 
or other they will experience great inconvenience. This 
is to be expected in the nature of things ; the only cir- 
cumstance which ought to engage our attention. As to 
the dispositions o^ -persons, they are evanescent in their 
nature. On the contrary, if a prince hostile to France, 
if, above all, this prince was firmly supported by Aus- 
tria, and had a great interest in attaching himself to 
her, then Austria would have nothing to fear on the 
side of Naples, and would have to calculate on a faith- 
ful ally ; whereas, under other circumstances, time may 
create for her a jealous neighbour. Thus may we ex- 
plain the motives of Austria in her conduct towards 
Murat. 

Austria represented the invasion of Italy as the 
means of an indemnity for her losses, and a compen- 
sation for the acquisitions that her neighbours have 
made. 

But first, as to an indemnity; was it due to her? and 
was it not to compromise the safety of Italy, and with it 
the most valuable part of the true system of Europe? 
This question will occasion much trouble in its solu- 
tion. 



Congress of Vienna^ 141 

Austria has recovered the two Tyrols, German and 
Italian; the Voralboarg,* Carniola ; what she lost in 
Carinthia, in Istria, and all Dalmatia. To these we 
may add the Islands in the xldriatic. Has not the re- 
turn of possessions so valuable appeared to her an event 
as fortunate as it was unexpected ? Has she not to con- 
gratulate herself on having got rid of so troublesome a 
neighbour as Illyria, converted into a French province? 
We may then allow, that, without injustice, Austria 
might have been placed in the condition we assign her. 
But this was not the case. Not content with what she 
has recovered, she has returned to her Italian system ; 
and, profiting of the opportunity, she became possessed 
in gross of tliat which, until that period, she only pos^ 
sessed in detail. Hence has she pounced upon Italy ; 
and without regard either for her, or France, or Eu- 
rope, she has adopted the measures against this country 
that we have stated, and which destroy all its natural 
relations. Therefore here we discover a circumstance 
which must be prevented; and, if it should be indis- 
pensable not to counteract the views of aggrandisement 
formed by Austria in this quarter, at least it will be 
proper to assign it one whicli shall have nothing inju= 
rious to Europe, and which might in its nature have be- 
come profitable. This concession should have been ob- 
tained in Bosnia, Croatia, and Servia. These countries 
influence Dalmatia and Austrian Sclavonia. They but 
nominally belong to Constantinople, whose authority is 
continually disputed and contested. This union would 
form a superb arrondissement for Austria. It has for 
a long time engaged her attention ; and, particularly at 
the epoch of the great prosperity of France, she only 
wished to get to a distance from this formidable neigh- 
bour. But the system of Europe would have been as 
much ameliorated by the annexation of this part of the 
Ottoman Empire, as it has been injured by the invasion 

* At this time Austria neg'otiated for the cession of Salzbourg and the 
Brisgau. 



142 Congress of Vienna. 

of Italy. All the dependencies of the Turkish empire 
are but as a dead weight in their relation to the main 
body of Europe. In those countries we know that they 
have no other object in their system of destruction, than 
to remain masters of a desolated land, and inhabitants 
brutified and plundered. Consequently all that can be 
taken from this barbarous system, in order to aiFord it 
a participation in the civilisation of Europe, will be- 
come subservient to its advantage. This is necessary to 
be well understood in any discussion, the object of 
which may be the state of Europe. In acting for Austria, 
and in bestowing new possessions on her, we should^ 
also have acted for the benefit of Europe. The Con- | 
gress would have fulfilled the obligations into which it \ 
had entered, if it had ceded these two provinces to tjhijft 
government of Austria. 

For ten years Servia has sustained a bloody and suc- 
cessful war against the Turks. The enterprise of Na- 
poleon against Russia having forced the latter to with- 
draw her support from the Servians, the Turks then 
became possessed of the means of turning upon them. 
In a few months the Servians lost all the fruit of their 
truly generous efforts. They had shown talents and 
resolution, but what could they do against forces so dis- 
proporiioiied ; and, above all, wlien they found them- 
selves perfectly surrounded ?' They were compelled to 
yield. The chiefs, as ever happens, found honours 
and a refuge in other countries ; but the nation expe- 
rienced all the evils that re-actions produce, and parti- 
cularly when they spring from the Turks. Therefore 
the annexation of tliis country to Austria would have 
hern beneficial to itself, to Europe, and to Turkey. 
Perhaps also the moment had arrived to put an end to 
these quarrels, that for forty years have constantly oc- 
curred in Wallachia and Moldavia. Even if these 
provinces had been annexed to Austria, in order to their 
civilisation and moral restoration to Europe, much be- 
nefit would have been derived to the whole world, and 
a new subject for praise would have been foundo For 



Congress of Vienna. 143 

a long time the contest has been carried on between 
the two countries. The Turks only govern there in 
name ; for what denomination can be given to such in- 
fluence as the regime of the Hospodars, who constantly 
pass from ihe palaces of Bucharest and Jassy to the pri- 
sons of Constantinople, and from thence to the Court 
of St. Petersburg? It will be necessary to prevent the 
ever imminput danger of the invasion of these two 
countries by Russia. She has, by the acquisition of 
Bessarabia, brought herself still nearer to them. The 
loss of these two provinces will not be felt by the 
Turks. In that case, their empire will be bounded by 
the Danube, which, in fact, is its natural limit. Advan- 
tage may be taken of this opportunity to terminate a 
desultory warfare that has lasted so long a time ; and 
to obtain, without a contest, a fortunate result to the 
unanimous representations of the powers of Europe. 
This conduct will at least be distinguished by candour 
and generosity, which ever command success. 

We have said elsewhere with what object Mentz has 
been restored to Austria.* 



CHAPTER XVIIL 

The Empire. 



The empire has never corresponded to the wishes of 
the negotiators at Westphalia. 

Destined to form a balance between Austria and 
France, it has never been otherwise than an instrument 
in their hands. 

A portion of the quarrels that have imbrued Germa- 
ny with blood, was independent of the majority of the 

* See the chapter on the real Spirit tvhich actuated the Congress. 



144 Congress of Vienna. 

princes that compose that body, who possess a recollec- 
tion of past power, and but little of its present reality. 

The debasement of Sweden, the elevation of Prus- 
sia, the appearance of Russia, have changed the state 
of Europe. 

In the great wars of Louis the Fourteenth, the em- 
pire became divided. The princes ceased to consider 
themselves as members of the Germanic body, and be- 
gan to act as independent sovereigns, pursuing those in- 
terests that led them either to a connexion with Austria 
or with France. Owing to this system, the electors of 
Bavaria and Cologne lost their states for many years. 

In the war to which the succession of the Emperor 
Charles the Fifth gave rise, the empire was neither 
more wise nor more united. One party fought for the 
French. They lavished both men and money, in order 
to place the imperial crown on the head of the Bavarian 
House, — a scheme which at present would please no 
one, but it was the policy of the time. 

From the middle of the last century the rivalry of 
Austria and Prussia have agitated the empire. There 
have been established a higher and lower empire. All 
the north of Germany, and all in the south that feared 
Austria, attached themselves, as to a natural protector, 
to Prussia, without any regard to a catholic or protest- 
ant league. This was witnessed in the Bavarian war 
in 1778. Not only did we cease to hear of the empire, 
but we heard no more of Germany ; for, since the reign 
of Frederick, Germany, properly speaking, consisted 
only of Austrians and Prussians : the last had a ma- 
jority. 

The empire was a grave and august body, ever agitat- 
ed but never acting. It appeared like an ancient palace, 
unfit for habitation. It had crumbled to pieces under 
the blows of the revolution. Its chief had abandoned it. 
One part of its members have elsewhere sought assist- 
ance. While masses of authority, such as th^ electoral 
and the other ecclesiastical states, have disappeared, 
other authorities have passed into the ordinary condition 



Congress of Vienna, 145 

of subjects. Hence, the empire no longer exists ; and 
in this state the Congress found it. 

Therefore it appeared that with it they had nothing 
more to do, but merely with the good order of the 
Powers of which it was composed, or rather of those 
who occupied the territory of what was formerly the 
empire. 

These Powers experience the twofold necessity of 
protecting themselves against France and against Rus- 
sia ; of preventing the recurrence of the invasions of 
the one and the commencement of the attacks of the 
other ; but with this difference, that if the one assailed 
their independence, the other would be able to menace 
their existence. 

Germany ought therefore to be so organised, that 
Fraace and Hussia should be for ever excluded. Ger- 
many has no longer to fear either Austrian or Prussian 
ambition. At the very first step that either should take 
of this nature, all would declare against the aggressor, 
and find themselves supported by France and Russia. 

Some of the sovereigns in Germany have acquired 
higher titles than they formerly possessed. This is un- 
fortunate for the dignity of thrones, — a dignity that 
ought neither to be lavished nor its influence weakened. 
Rarity forms the price of things ; and it is because kings 
are rare that they are honoured. 

At the same time, this multiplication of thrones be- 
comes an injury to subjects ; for the elevation of the 
rank requires an augmentation of expense. A king must 
have an army more numerous than an elector ; an elec- 
tor, one more numerous than a landgrave. The emu- 
lation of luxury establishes itself in all ranks of socie- 
ty ; and in a short time, people and subjects, all are 
equally ruined. 

Unfortunately there was not sufficient room in Ger\ 
many to give a convenient extent to the new kingdoms. \ 
Eivery place was occupied. The Congress bas stiown, \ 
itself highly forgetful of this part in redu'^in^ Saxony, 
already too small for a kingdom, into one half its origi- 



146 Congress of Vienna, 

nal size. In this state, it is impossible to say which it 
is that signifies Saxony, or the royalty of Saxony. We 
cannot too often repeat, that if kings are to be made, 
they should be great ones. All the petty sovereignties 
serve but to reduce the general sovereignty ; in fact, the 
general power of Europe. They create embarrassment 
in its proceedings. 

The system of the division of Germany may have 
been tolerable when they had only to support the weight 
of one Power, such as Austria; when it was only sus- 
tained by the rival of Austria. France was the correc- 
tive of the inconveniences of the Germanic constitution. 
But now that to Austria we may add Prussia, and, 
above all, Russia, how will it be possible to adapt cir- 
cumstances to the new order of things ? Hence, in the 
system of the general interests of Europe, it was all 
lost time that was granted to a crowd of little claims, 
"which the establishment or maintenance of some gene- 
ral principles would at once have been sufficient to dis- 
miss. ~ ,. 

General rule : The Germanic system must be simpli- 
fied. The Congress at Vienna should have endeavoured 
to finish the work commenced by the treaty of l^xmu 
Yille. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Italy. — The Pope, 



We have before described what Italy was before the 
revolution. Let us now see what it has been rendered 
by that event, and by the Congress. 

Italy has undergone a painful second childhood ; but 
at last she has submitted. Better directed, it would have 
rendered her happy. 



Congress of Vienna. ±^ 

France had appropriated to herself a great part of it. 
She possessed herself of all the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean as far as the kingdom of Naples. This esta- 
blishment was injudicious. It belonged not in the slight- 
est degree to France, who never will be able to esta- 
blish itself in Italy : indeed where is the occasion for 
it? 

The mass of Italians united to the French were too 
great not to consider themselves a separate nation. It 
was too near to its Italian brothers, and the latter too 
much interested in their union, for the different mem- 
bers of this family not to have a tendency to become 
one state. Thus Napoleon, in founding the kingdom 
of Italy at the extremity of his lengthened empire, did 
little else but create a constant state of war and sinister 
manoeuvres. The empire of France must inevitably ab- 
sorb Italy, or Italy would absorb that part of itself, de- 
tached from the main body of the empire. 

This conduct of Napoleon was destitute of foresight 
and that species of wisdom that assigns to every thing 
its just value and its proper place. 

Thus this acquisition cannot, in a political point of 
view, be applauded ; but, viewed in its moral light, it 
has purified Italy, and opened the sources of wealth 
and happiness she possesses. Crime disappeared from 
a country which to that period it had called its own. 
On the retreat of the French it resumed its place. Per- 
haps they never had before received such a mark of ho- 
mage. The barriers, so carefully erected between its 
different divisions by the jealousy of sovereigns and the 
fiscal department, fell on all sides. The communica- 
tions were free ; and the sovereigns themselves, finding 
their states covered with monuments, the grandeur of 
"which surpasses their ancient power, cannot deny them 
their admiration, whatever repugnance they may show 
to their toleration, or aversion they may experience to 
their existence. 

By the partition of Italy between France and the 
kingdom of Italy, this country has lost the finest oppor- 



4 'IS Congress of Vienna, 

tunity it ever possessed of becoraiag jjii independent^ 
state since the time of the Romans. If, instead of pre- 
cipiiaiing himself with the most impruiSent violence on 
the states of the Fape, on Tuscany, and Genoa, Napo- 
leon had united Upper Italy, this country would then 
h'^ve acquired suiBcient force to protect itself, without 
being in a situation to be attacked or to conquer others: 
for it could only be assailed by France or Austria; to 
either of whom, separately or together, it would ever 
have been unable to ofier an effectual opposition. It 
was with her as has been of late with the kingdom of 
the Low Countries, which forms a conservative state, 
only calculated to have friends every where and no 
where.* 

A confederation between the states of Italy, at all 
times pointed out by geography and the interests of the 
country, would place all its strength at the disposition 
of its natural protector, who should be sovereign of 
this state. Its system was very simple, being formed 
out of three states, Upper Italy, the Pope, and Na- 
ples. No one would have had a pretence to encroach 
on the other. The whole of Italy was freed from fo- 
reign dominion. France had an interest to keep Aus- 
tria at a distance ; Austria the same with France?! 
This state, thus constituted, could afford jealousyjto I 
no one. "^ 

How unfortunate that this combination, so simple and 
so natural, should not have been able to strike him who 
could do every thing. This sad forgetfulness has plun- 
ged Italy into a state of chaos. 

The Grand-Buke of Tuscany returned home, as if 
lie had but been absent on a short journey. He found 
every thing again :— he has done still better ; for his 
estates have been completed by the union of many 
territories and sovereignties, that now form a part of 

* The plan of this establishment was traced eighteen years ago, together 
with that adopted in detail for the kingdom of the Low Countries, in the 
work entitled "Antidote to the Congress at Radstadt." Vide p. 80, et seq. 



Congress of Vienna. 149 

it, such as the estate of the Presides, tlie Neapolitan 
part of Elba, the principality of Piombino, the impe- 
rial fiefs of Tuscany, and the reversion of Lucca, which 
have been granted to him. 

Parma has lost its Bourbon princes. They have ac- 
quired a title, and lost their estates. By the treaty of 
Paris, Parma was appropriated to a family mid- way be- 
tween past grandeur ancl present good fortune. 

The Congress granted it to the Arch-Duchess Maria 
Louisa for life, without excluding Austria from the 
right of reversion. -/ 

An act of the 14th of September, 1815, signed at 
Vienna, definitively fixed the state of this country, and 
confirmed it to the arch-duchess ; and after her to her 
son, who, by the last enterprise of his father, was placed 
in an unnatural situation. 

Genoa is united to Piedmont, notwithstanding her 
aversion to the measure. The King of Sardinia has 
repassed the mountains, and repossessed himself of 
the territory which was the cradle of his illustrious 
House. 

The last sprout of the House of Este occupies a lit- 
tle sovereignty at Modena. The race being extinct, an 
Austrian prince will succeed to it. 

All that forms the rest of northern Italy has fallen 
into the hands of Austria. 

This new order of things is at once contrary to the 
welfare of Italy, the wishes of its inhabitants, and the 
interest of Europe. 

In this situation the King of Sardinia crosses the 
Alps. This never should have taken place. They 
should serve as an eternal barrier between France and 
Italy. Nature created them for this purpose. To this 
intention every thing should give way. Not to do so, 
will be to renew the sanguinary and bloody wars that 
have alike desolated the two countries ; to create facili» 
ties for fraud, and refuge for crime. 

Savoy can never be defended against France, This 



150 Congress of Vienna. 

country every where directs itself toward France, and 
not on Istria. 
]n. The King of Sardinia is too weak against France, as 
well as against Austria. It is a dwarf between two 
giants. 

When the entrance to his states was defended by the 
strongest places in Europe, this gaoler of the Alps could 
not keep the keys. What will he now do, with an open 
and defenceless country, and when Turin cannot hold 
out a siege ? 

The acquisition of Geneva does not give him a real 
strength, still less a strength correspondent to that of 
his neighbours. 

V/hen Austria shall go as far as the Tesino, what 
will the King of Sardinia do against his powerful op- 
pressor? Will he not naturally have recourse to 
France ? Here we behold Italy again in conflagration 
by the hands of Frenchmen and Germans, as if this 
coontry never could be emancipated by the descendants 
of the Cimbri and Teutons, instead of those of Bren- 
nus. 

If it was impossible to prevent Austria taking root in 
Italy, at least a watch should have been kept, so that it 
should have been done ad libitum. She ought to have 
been precluded the passage of the Po, on the side of the 
legations, and her simultaneous establishments in all the 
little sovereignties of Italy and Modena, in Tuscany, at 
Parma, prevented. The King of Sardinia should have 
been aggrandised, as we have stated elsewhere, and 
some correctives of the evil inherent in the entrance of 
Austria into this country attempted. It should be the in- 
variable and eternal principle of Europe not to permit 
either France or Austria to set foot in Italy. The wel- 
fare of Europe requires that there should be a kingdom 
established, to commence at the Izonzo and terminate 
at the foot of the Alps and the states of the Pope. 
Then Italy would form three states ; this kingdom^ the 
states of the Pope, and those of Naples. 



Congress of Vienna. 151 

Reason, and, we may say, the nature of things, ad- 
judge the throne of Italy to the House of Savoy. The 
Italians would feel themselves honoured in having fop 
their first king, for their permanent sovereigns, the 
princes of a House that has produced so many illustri- 
ous men, who will recal to them so many impressive re- 
collections ; and which, in its elevated rank, will show 
one of its own children to Italy in the person of its so- 
vereign. 

To have neglected this establishment is to have aban- 
doned the system of Europe — is to have taken a false 
step — is to have paralysed one of its most important 
portions — is to have created frequent causes of war for 
Europe—is to have formed great embarrassments even 
for Austria, in giving her a great mass of subjects, 
whose affection is doubtful, to protect ; and to have cre- 
ated for Italy a source of eternal regret. 

If it is not possible to deny that our interest is excited 
by the circumstance of a people being deprived of their 
sovereign and sovereignty, to whom is it more due than 
to the Italians? The day-star of liberty had began to 
dawn on them. Its very first rays had cast a new light 
on a land hitherto held in foreign fetters. The Italians, 
formed into one family, appeared to have a community 
of affection, and shone on the theatre of that world from 
which it had been so long exiled. Introduced into the 
great family of Europe, they proved that in attainments 
they yielded to no one of its members ; that they pos- 
sessed talents which could raise them to the considera- 
tion of the most important subjects, as well as desceud 
to those that luxury has provided for more frivolous 
enjoyment. Here behold their rising happiness, their 
personal existence, the care of their own affairs wrested 
from them. Their wealth, produced by the sweat of 
their brows, their laborious and delightful industry, are 
to be divided between themselves and foreigners. The 
defence of the approaches to their superb country was 
no longer to be exclusively committed to their care. 
But the children of Italy were to proceed to the defence 



152 Congress of Vienna, 

of Teneswal and Cracow, and contend with Russians;, 
Prussians, and Turks. Ah ! if the Saxons complained, 
how much more reason have not the Italians to lament 
their bitter lot! The Saxon inhabits a country reseaP7 
bling Prussia : he speaks the same language ; possesses 
the same taste. He is a German as well as a Prussian: 
under, it is true, a diU'erent government : but he is in 
all situations a German. On the other hand, the Ita- 
lian is neither Hungarian, German, nor Pole. Born un- 
der another sky, struck with the sight of other objects 
from his birth, the Italian must accustom his ear to they 
roughness of the German and Selavonian dialects. HeJ^ 
must order his eyes and all his senses not to be dls'- 
gusted with the homeliness of the places he is to inha- 
bit, and the customs with which he has to meet. Such 
were the people that called for the interest of Europe 
and that of the Congress. Hence, their profound and 
lasting regret! 

Italy protested herself against the appropriation 
proposed by Austria. It is necessary that the latter 
should be on her guard. This Italy, of which she has 
disposed so summarily, is no longer t!»at Lombardy 
which she possessed a century since. At that period 
she did not possess Venice, the union of which with the 
Milanese forms a mass of power and population fully 
equal to the extent of a nation. The Italians are no 
longer the Milanese, the Genoese, that they were- 
twenty years ago. There, as every where, every thing / 
IS changed. Then Italy slumbered ; now she is awake, j 
The Italians had not then tasted of independence ; they^ 
have opened to themselves a new existence, a new 
world ; and the instant that they commenced the en- 
joyment of their new happiness, it has been torn 
from them. They are supported by the sentiments 
predominant in the minds of their brethren, as well as 
those of the generous men of all countries : they are 
esteemed, and have appeared with honour, on the field 
of battle : they are convinced that they possess every 
thing necessary to the formation and the glory of a 



Congress of Vienna, 153 

nation. They know it by experience ; and find them- 
selves in the service of masters to whom they do not 
regard themselves as inferior in any circumstances. 
The Italians have expressed their aversion from the 
yoke that has been imposed on them. The feeling of 
independence has made so rapid a progress in this 
country, that in the course of time a general reunion 
of Italy, in a single and sovereign capacity, must re- 
sult from the restraint to which she has been compelled 
to submit. The necessity of putting an end to all her 
vexations, of no longer serving as aliment for the ava- 
rice of some, and remaining victims to the interested 
views of others, will lead the Italians to the adoption 
of a system that the universe will applaud. It was in 
the power of Napoleon ; but he acted with this mate- 
riel as he did with so many others. 

Whatever House may prevail at Xaples, it will in- 
crease the desire of Upper Italy for independence, in 
order to diminish the oppressive burthens of Austria, 
of which Naples will not be long before she has her 
share. Joachim appeared to guarantee Italy to Austria^ 
In the course of twenty years he would have endea- 
voared to counteract her designs : to drive her from it, 
if he should be able, and substitute the state of which 
we speak. Necessity, it is true, has given another di- 
reciion to affairs. It was the moment for men ; but 
when that of things should return, they would act 
agreeably to their nature, and great changes will take 
place. With the House of Bourbon it will be the same, 
and even worse. Tranquil as to its family interests, and 
restored to its own policy, it will not be long before it 
experiences great inconvenience from this Austrian do- 
mination in Italy. Id this case, it will not fail to <rMrecfc 
its views towards the reduction of the Austrian power 
in that country, and to call to its assistance the sove- 
reign of Naples, also interested in diminishing the in- 
fluence of Austria. France could for ever have been 
separated from Austria, its great and ancient rival. 

u 



154) Go7igress of Vienna. 

Here, however, are we again to behold those fields of 
battle, on the very places which Francis the First, and 
Charles the Fifth, and their successors, uselessly con- 
tested for so long a period. What an inconsiderate 
conduct ! How contrary at once to the welfare of Italy, 
to that of France, of Austria, and of Europe ? 

It is far from being certain, that Austria will gain 
by this arrangement, so apparently advantageous to her. 
Italy will be difficult to keep. A considerable part of 
the Austrian forces must be kept there, and this will 
tend to weaken her on the side of Russia. This system.- 
is as Anti-European, as it is Anti-Italian and Anti- 
Gallican. It is impossible to omit repeating, that Aus- 
tria as well as Prussia has but one great interest, that 
of watching Russia. In order to discharge this duty, 
she must not divide her forces, nor weaken them by 
retaining unwilling subjects. It is better to have a 
smaller number, on whose aifections full reliance can 
be placed. 

Perhaps they will say, that Austria will give a libe- 
ral constitution to Italy, and place it on the same foot- 
ing that it does Hungary. Well, that which affords 
Italy consolation, will be the means of raising an ene- 
my against Austria. Let us wait a moment for the em- 
barrassment on the part of Austria ; let us permit fo- 
reign intrigues to operate, and we shall see what mil- 
lions of Italians, collected to discuss their own interests 
and establish their own rights, will do. If Italians are 
mistaken for Sclavonians, Transylvauians, Hungarians, 
in earlier periods ; but it would be as well to mistake 
Milan, Venice, Bologna, for Italian towns, and for 
the Grothie towns inhabited by the descendants of 
Herules and the Huns. This is the point to which 
habit would induce us to assimilate times and things 
in which there is no community either of acts or feel- 
ing. 

It is with the utmost astonishment that the Congress 
has been seen pass so lightly over this grand invasion 



Congress of Vienna, 15^ 

of Italy by Austria. In their wandering from general 
ideas, it appears that the negotiators of the North have 
permitted Austria to do what she chose in the South, on 
a tacit condition, that they might do the same in the 
North. We may conjecture, that this was determined 
before-hand. After a great number of propositions on 
the destination of the Papal states, the Congress at 
last decided to restore them in their integrity. They 
have not even excepted the principalities of Beneven- 
tum and Ponte Corvo. Austria is to retain a garrison 
at Ferrara. The Pope had ceded these legations by 
the Treaty of Toleutino. This country has been re- 
presented as abandoned by the sovereign of Rome ; as 
reconquered, and consequently a fit subject for indem- 
nification, as well as other territories equally ceded and 
reconquered. An increase of four hundred thousand 
souls had been promised to the King of Naples, to be 
taken from the Marches. This prince strongly insisted 
on this clause in the treaty. 

The Congress took a part much more honourable, 
and the only one that remained to it. It thought it 
ridiculous to convey an idea that the Pope could have 
made war, that he should become a victim to a war 
that he had neither entered into nor managed. Under 
this conviction, things relative to the Pope were placed 
in the slate they ever ought to have been, that of in- 
violability. All the plunder of the Pope was as con- 
trary to decency as justice; injurious at once to the 
mind and the heart. In the present condition of Ca- 
tholicism, all eyes should be dazzled by the brilliancy 
of its chief. The beauties of this superb tree, that 
extends so beneficent a shade, cannot be supported on 
a decayed trunk. The Pope should be in Europe, as 
the tribe of Levi in Israel, wholly exempt from the 
effects of war. The Pope has been treated with uni- 
form contempt. Nothing but his hierarchy has been 
regarded. On the contrary, to the good order in which 
he exercised his spiritual functions; an attention should 
have been paid. 



156 Congress of Vienna, 

At the termination of a doubtful debate, the Congress 
determined the re-establishment of the former King of 
Naples. It is to the invasion of Napoleon that this 
prince is indebted. This unexpected event dissipated 
all the doubts and all the clouds with which private in- 
terests or private feelings had enveloped certain ques- 
tions. Thus the King of Naples has been re-establish- 
ed by the person who expelled him; a fate widely dif- 
ferent from his competitor, Murat, who has been also 
dethroned by Napoleon, but who greatly contributed 
by his own defection to his own overthrow. Wretched 
calculator ! He could not see that he was but the feeble 
link of a chain, the rupture of one part of which en- 
sured the destruction of the whole ! 

If the return of the King of Naples has gratified all 
the wishes of the prince and of his family, it has also 
gratified the minds and hearts of all those alive to senti- 
ments of public convenience, and who possess the sym- 
pathy due to misfortunes. His re-establishment is also 
the commencement of a signal benefit to Naples and to 
Sicily. The division of the sovereignty of the two 
countries rendered them hostile. While there were 
Bourbons in Sicily, and Mo rats at Naples, the two 
countries would have remained in a state of permanent 
hostility. The enmity of sovereigns affects their sub- 
jects in every thing, and on all occasions they are too 
near each other; and the pretensions and jealousies 
that exist between the two sovereigns would make their 
separation very injurious to both. Besides, this divi- 
sion rendering commercial communications difficult, 
"would have still farther restricted the trade of the Me- 
diterranean, which the Barbary Powers have already 
rendered too difficult. 

Hence, the re-establishment of the King of Naples 
is not alone a benefit for himself and his family, but 
for Sicily and Naples. It is still more beneficial for 
Europe, that has the greatest necessity for a facility 
and enlargement of the channels of commerce. In fa- 



Congress of Vienna. 157 

ture, the mariner will proceed from Naples to Sicily, 
without the fear of falling from (Jharybdis into Scylla. 
It is under this general and European idea that we 
have from the first regarded this question. It was not 
without surprise that we witnessed the long plea for and 
against Murat ; so true it is, that we live in a time 
when general ideas have little influence, and in which 
questions of public interest terminate by family or per- 
sonal considerations. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Saxony and JVaples. 



We now proceed to discuss delicate points. Our 
disinterestedness in the cause, the freedom with which 
we have expressed ourselves, will, we trust, place us 
above every suspicion of partiality. We are fond of 
recollecting that it is for Europe, and as Europeans, 
that we write, regardless of persons or countries. If 
we could for a moment abandon this course of inflexi- 
ble impartiality, doubtless nothing would render it more 
pardonable than when it yielded to the interest inspired 
by the King of Saxony ; a prince, the object of his peo- 
pie's affection, and the veneration of Europe. But we 
cannot think of men, but of Europe, and its permanent 
interests. 

Of Murat, we know nothing, neither during or before 
his reign. He is no more, and his relations have dis- 
appeared. No prejudice, arising from attachment or 
gratitude, shall influence the decision that we are about 
to give. Had we reproaches to address to this prince, 
perhaps we should have sought them in other sources 



158 Congress of Vienna, 

than those whence were drawn the grossest invectives 
that it is possible to accumulate on the character of a 
man, elevated to a rank that violence ought never to 
reach. The king hides the man, and the royal mantle 
the humble garb of the shepherd. All thrones are 
marked with the blows struck at those who occupy 
them. If we were to attack the character of the King 
of Naples, it is not the commencement, but the latter 
part of his life of which we should speak. We should 
not reproach him for having been the son of an obscure 
man ; for there exist laws, emanating from Heaven, to 
prevent men continuing to be obscure ;* but we should 
reproach him in having forgotten his origin in allying 
himself with the enemies of France. We should re- 
proach him for having separated himself from her, and 
from him, to whom he owed every species of obliga- 
tion, the forgetfulness of which never can be forgiven. 
The situation of Murat was not similar to that of the 
Prince Hoyal of Sweden. He in no degree owed his 
elevation to Napoleon, who only permitted it : but he 
had done every thing for Murat, in introducing him in- 
to his family, and investing him with supreme rank, 
which, in fact, he held by virtue of this alliance : for, 
correctly speaking, it was rather to the sister of Napo- 
leon than to Murat that the throne of Naples was 
given. 

On the other hand. Napoleon did not take advantage 
of the error of Murat after the fruits of it had been 
reaped. If the King of Naples had equalled Prince 
Eugene in his fidelity to Napoleon, and uniting with 
him, had given his brother-in-law the support that he 
did to his enemies, many of those who have addressed 
him in language so insulting and so haughty, would 
have been more moderate in their expressions. The 

* Who ever dreamt of asking of whom Washington and Franklin were 
the sons ? It would be as much as to say, that before we can do any thing' 
great we must prove our rank. 



Congress of Vienna. 159 

freedom of these preliiniaaries will permit us to resume 
this discussion. 



The Augusti of Saxony became kings of Poland. 
Hence Saxony was crushed. The first Augustus con- 
nected himself with Tzar Peter, drew Charles the 
Twelfth into Poland, and ruined both countries. The 
second Augustus took part against Prussia. He left his 
army in the hands of his enemy at Pirna, his states a 
prey to the conqueror, and went to enjoy himself in 
pleasure at Warsaw. He died, and, in order to indem- 
nify her for the dissipation of others, bequeathed Saxo- 
ny another treasure. This treasure was his son. This 
wise prince, in the course of a reign of fifty years, and 
a government as mild as it was insensibly felt, repaired 
all the disasters of the seven years' war. The bank pa- 
per of Saxony was the most current in Europe ; com- 
merce made a daily progress, and Saxony became one 
of the most happy countries in the universe : a new 
proof that, to render people happy, it is necessary only 
to spend little money, and exercise as little power as 
possible. 

For nearly forty years. Saxony, almost unperceived 
in Europe, flourished without eclat, but also without 
envy, tranquil as she was happy, and silent as she was 
contented. During the first war of the revolution. Sax- 
ony furnished the contingents fixed by the laws of the 
empire. She profited, as did all northern Germany, 
of the opportunity offered by the line of Prussian de- 
marcation, from 1796 to 1801. The war with Prussia 
precipitated her into the abyss. It is the third time, in 
the space of sixty years, that the same cause has pro- 
duced to her the same effects. The morning after the 
battle of Ji^na the Saxons fought in the ranks of those 
who had been their enemies the day before. The 
Elecioi' of Saxony received the title that had so long 
been attached to his ancestors in Poland. The treaty 



160 Congress of Vienna. 

of Tilsit made him a Grand-Duke of Warsaw. By this 
step he at once raised himself in Saxony, and lowered 
himself in Poland. There commenced his misfortunes, 
and those of Haxony. In this country, filled as it is 
with enlightened men, there was a general repugnance 
shown to this possession of the Grand-Dutehy of War- 
saw. The Saxons had not forgotten what Poland had 
cost them in the course of two reigns. On its part, the 
Dutchy of Warsaw suffered from the absence of the 
prince, the slow progress made in public business, the 
Saxon influence experienced there, and the division 
of attention necessarily produced by the separation of 
the two countries. Saxony and the grand-dutchy had 
a community of government, without a community of 
interest ; the worst of combinations : and although the 
parts may remain in a state of reciprocal dependence, 
not, perhaps, to be expected from those who are un- 
known to each other. This furnishes another source 
of inquiry. 

By a creation of the Dutchy of Warsaw, Napoleon 
wished to oppose Saxony to Prussia. By its locality^^ 
and all the circumstances of the country, Saxony is a 
Prussian province, under a prince who is not a Prus- 
sian. At Dresden the King of Saxony nearly resem- 
bles the Kings of Orleans, under the first race of the 
Kings of France. 

The possessions of the two states were not only mix- 
ed, but, so to express it, confused. Lusatia cut off 
Prussia from its finest province, Silesia. The Prussian 
custom-hoose officers surrounded Saxony. The prin- 
cipal wars of Prussia being with Austria, Saxony al- 
ways furnished a road, and a field of battle, for the ar- 
mies. In this situation did Saxony take that direction 
calculated for her ? She was at once too much without 
and too much within ; too much detached from, and too 
much dependent upon Prussia. 

It was only the long calm that Germany enjoyed from 
the peace of Hubersburg in 1763, that rendered this state 
of things at all supportable. The only reason why Baxony 



Congress of Vienna. 161 

existed independent for so long a time, was because the 
Kings of Prussia were as yet but Electors of Banden- 
burg ; but when by successive accessions of territory, 
owing to the genius of these princes, to fortunate events, 
to the force of arms, the House of HohenzoUern, so 
long a time inferior to the Princes of Saxony, became 
more powerful, then their relations mutually changed : 
correctly speaking. Saxony has no longer existed, but 
a Great Prussia. 

Prussia has become a preponderating Power in Eu- 
rope, necessary to balance Austria, more necessary still 
to restrain Russia. Her possessions are cut asunder by 
those of a foreigner. This foreigner, placed in the heart 
of Prussia, naturally inclines towards the enemies of 
Prussia. It belongs to them more than to her; but, if 
attacked, who is to defend it but Prussia? If in the 
actually approaching state of Russia towards the cen- 
tre of Europe, what should Prussia, the advanced guard 
of Europe, do, if she were attacked by Russia ? Does 
not the inter-position of a state not belonging to her 
weaken the means she ought to possess, in order to 
protect the post assigned her for the general benefit? 
If she should happen to be attacked on the side of 
Saxony, what use would Europe derive from having 
taken so much trouble to preserve that which thus would 
contribute to her destruction? Prussia was perfectly 
correct, both for herself and for Europe, in demanding 
the incorporation of Saxony. She asked for an exist- 
ence being given in public law to that which had al- 
ready an existence in fact ; she asked Europe not to 
weaken its protectress : above all, she asked France 
not to promote the interests of a state, whose existence 
did not concern her, in preference to those of her an- 
cient ally ; — a state that she could no more be defend- 
ed by than defend : she asked her to look at Europe, 
and not at one member of the family ; she asked her 
not to compel her to come and settle in her neighbour- 
hood, which would necessarily cool the friendship so 
mutually necessary to preserve. Instead of this, what 



16^ Congress of Vienna. 

has taken place ? The interests of Europe have been 
out of the question : they have given the preference to 
the establishment of what is called the legitimacy of au 
order of succession, rather than that of a political or- 
der : they have talked of sensibility : above all, and it 
is singular enough, they mentioned the rights of nations. 
To hear all that took place for three months, a casual 
observer would have thought that the Congress was 
specially assembled to save Saxony, and the King of 
Saxony. For three months we uniformly read in the 
public papers, and under the same head, " The King 
of Saxony is saved ; but he has ceded the tivo LusatiaSf 

the circle of , the Lordship of , the Dutchy 

of /" that is to say, the King of Saxony is saved, 

but Saxony is lost. And how have they saved him ? 
By taking from him almost as much as his whole king- 
dom. Is not the King of Saxony in fact separated from 
his best provinces? What is to become of the King of 
Saxony if the King of Prussia almost touches the su- 
burbs of Dresden? How bitterly will this sovereign 
lament, in the midst of the cutting regrets that they have 
prepared for him, his remaining attached to the muti- 
lated body of his states ! Will not his heart be more 
afflicted with the cries of that part of his family that 
they have taken from him, than consoled by the aifec- 
tions of those still left to him ? And the Saxons, se- 
parated from Saxony, will they be more happy ? Will 
they be more affectionate subjects, after all that has been 
said about the rights of the people ? Will they be less 
connected with Saxony remaining such, and less pre- 
served by them in their primitive attachment to Saxony 
and its sovereign, than those which are opposed to their 
new duties ? 

Therefore all this arrangement is improper. It should 
have been with Saxony as with Poland: she should 
have remained entire, or have altogether disappeared. 
Half measures spoil all great affairs. They are only 
useful in preparing the way for troubles, discontents, 
and finally, for wars, the most decisive part of which 



Congress of Vienna. 163 

is, at least, that which most spares the greatest portioiio 
Besides, whatever may have been the sensation that 
they wished to excite, on the conclusion of the business 
of Saxony the public remained quiet, and only answer- 
ed all these appeals by a silence that spoke loudly 
enough, that they did not misunderstand the nature of 
this arrangement. 

In a future page we shall point out what ought to 
have been done for Saxony. 



Since the year 1740, when Admiral Mathews forced 
the Court of Naples to separate itself from the cause of 
France, this state disappeared from the political thea- 
tre. It became, as did many portions of Italy, the ob- 
ject of travels, which a taste for the arts and a want of 
health induced those classes of society to undertake, 
who, by their leisure or their fortune, v/ere enabled to 
gratify and amend them. Naples has not been more 
than any other state, exempt from the attempts of revo- 
lution. 

In i793, the troops of this country appeared at Tou- 
lon. She furnished some contingents to the army of 
Italy in the great campaign of 1799. They were not 
long before they detached themselves from the Austrian, 
aruiy. French policy, in order to weaken Austria, suc- 
cessively separated Naples, and many princes of Italy, 
from that alliance. Thus was formed the Cisalpine 
Republic, the prelude to the kingdom of Italy. In 
December 1798, the Court of Naples, outstripping the 
coalition, made much ado about France. It was pre- 
mature. The Neapolitan army could not bear the sight 
of the iirst French co?'jt7s crarmee, disbanded itself, and. 
the French entered Naples with them. The king went 
to Sicily, the common place of refuge for his court. 
The success of Souvoroff enabled him to return to 
Naples ; and his return was distinguished by conduct 
that alienated many minds from him. 

Some years passed tranquilly enough. At last, in 



I64f Congress of Vien^ia. 

1805, when the short war of Austria terminated by the 
peace of Presburg, in consequence of the battle of Aus- 
terlitz, the Court of Naples, that had just signed a trea- 
ty with France, thought it had a favourable occasion to 
distinguish itself: but, badly informed as to the moment, 
she declared almost at the same instant that the House 
of Austria yielded. To occupy Naples, and compel 
the royal family again to seek an asylum in Sicily, was 
but the work of a day. The brother of Napoleon was 
placed on the throne. A short time after, he left it, to 
seek another that daily shook under him. Murat re- 
placed him. We know what has happened since. 

This prince took part in the war against the coalition. 
However, he eventually combined his interests with it, 
and rendered it great service, but on conditions. 

When ia a state of danger or of want, men are not 
nice : when it is passed, they reassume all their bold- 
ness, and all the urgency it produces. Let us under- 
stand the subject. Is a prince, M^hose states have not 
been conquered, who has made peace without sti-uilat- 
ing for the cession of his states, subject to be dethroned 
for private convenience? It is a question of public right 
that well deserves to be considered. 

But if the prince of whom we are about to speak has 
lent a decisive succour, on the express condition of the 
integrity of his states; and farther, on one, the object of 
which is the increase of his power: if this engagement 
has become common to all those acting with the con- 
tracting parties ; if all have experienced the happiest 
influence from this succour, and perhaps owe to it their 
success, then is it not a good contract, and binding on 
all parties ? Is it for loyalty, for dignity, for royal faith 
to say, that, after they have received the benefit, they no 
longer have occasion for the benefactor ; that they only 
yielded to circumstances, and that they should dispense 
with the exercise of sincerity in this engagement? To 
avoid one inconvenience, do not they fall into one still 
greater, into the greatest of all, a breach of faith ? The 
King of Naples already recognised by his own country, 



Congress of Vienna. I6i 

had he not, previous to the period, been acknowledged 
in the college of the kings of Europe ? Had he not 
his representatives vi^ith them? Had he been expelled 
from his states, like the other princes of the family of 
Napoleon ? Then what signifies the vulgar question, 
Shall the King of JVaples be driven off? for it is in 
thus confounding all notions and sentiments of conve- 
nience, that we learn to speak of kings. That this 
royalty at Naples might have soon offered, in the per- 
son of Murat, a considerable inconvenience ; that the 
exiled family should be preferred, all the world will 
allow ; but in treating of principles and public affairs, 
a circumstance essentially different, they represent as 
ipso facto dethronable the sovereign who had been ac- 
knowledged by all Europe, who had co-operated in the 
event on which it congratulates itself so much — an event 
which perhaps would not have taken place without that 
co-operation. Can this mode of proceeding be justified 
on any principle ? That they should have gone so far 
as to demand this surrender with a repetition of the 
grossest invectives, in stating their wish to subject this 
monarch to the most humiliating treatment, is it not in 
good truth as contrary to sound policy as to good man- 
ners ? In short, as has in fact happened, if acknow- 
ledged and confirmed on his throne by the general con- 
sent, neither ignorant of nor able to forget the extent to 
which it had been carried, any more than the senti- 
ments that, lurking in the heart, this sovereign should 
have unreservedly delivered himself to the enemies of 
France, and obtained a guarantee for the possession of 
one of those dominions in Italy, so prejudicial to the 
former country, added to the other commercial advan- 
tages of which she was so much in want. This con- 
jecture does not appear chimerical, when we recollect 
the support lent to Murat by Austria; for it was not 
against him, in whom we only behold Murat, that Au- 
stria armed herself, but against the conspirator ready to 
attack Italy. If the King of Naples had exhibited a 
conduct that would have inspired confidence, and if he 



166 Congress of Vienna. 

could have tendered sufficient guarantees for his pre= 
sent and future intentions ; if he had not threatened for 
so long a time ; if he had not exercised odious vexa- 
tions in the Papal territory ; above all, if he had not 
been imprudent enough to ally himself with Napoleon, 
Austria never would have attacked him, and she only 
could have crushed him. Russia was nearly indiffer- 
ent in the cause. Prussia, foiled by the House of Bour- 
bon in its project on Saxony, would not have attached 
much value to satisfy her on this subject. Great Bri- 
tain sought to indemnify Ferdinand ; a certain proof 
that she did not think of removing Murat. Lord Cas- 
tlereagh did not conceal in the British Parliament, that 
Murat owed his disaster only to the irresolute conduct 
be evinced ; and that if a dependence could have been 
placed on his integritj', bis right to the crown would not 
have been questioned. In this case, we perceive that 
the provocations offered to this prince presented a very 
dangerous appearance. 

To give to the King of Naples more direct and more 
certain blows, the sacred words of legitimacy and the 
honour of thrones should have been resounded. No 
one would have dared to deny their sanctity ; no per- 
son could have wished that nations should have sove- 
reigns who were obscure, nor thrones that were degrad- 
ed. He must have been the enemy of society who 
could entertain such an idea : but, also, let them not be 
hurried away by a zeal in which intemperance may 
overcojiie intelligence. The word legitimacy sounds 
great and profound, but it is enveloped in thick mists. 
How are we to lind the sources of legitimacy ? Who 
confers it? Who takes it away? Where does it com- 
mence? Where does it terminate? Are the nations 
whose sovereigns have been driven from their thrones 
destined to remain eternally without a legitimate go- 
vernment? To reign, is it necessary that a king should 
always have reigned ? Can they begin to reign ? Have 
they never commenced nor finished a reign ? Also, are 
elective thrones destitute of honour ? Is the throne to 



Congress of Vienna. I67 

receive it from him who occupies it ? Where does the 
honour of the throne begin and terminate? Is it that 
they should have acknowledged him as king, before or 
after he had reigned ? Is the honour of thrones better 
preserved by covering those who occupy them with 
dirt, or with a veil of respect and silence ; in seeing 
honour conferred on the man by the throne, rather than 
dishonour imprinted on the throne by the man ? Be- 
sides, is it well in this age, in which all ideas and all 
rights are so scrutinised, that questions should be put 
to the mass of men that inevitably produce a danger- 
ous examination : and can they, with any prudence, tell 
them, after all that has passed, and of which they 
have so many monuments still before them, that there 
is one rank in the universe, to which some privi- 
leged mortals among their fellows have an exclusive 
right? 

In latter times there has been by far too much said 
about legitimacy. 

They have done for legitimacy that which the wri- 
ters of Napoleon did for the warlike and anti-commer- 
cial system ; the more they would persuade the public 
of its excellence, the more the public disbelieved it. 
The senate, the council, the legislative body, and au- 
thors, either seduced by gold or induced by their own 
folly, (and there were a great number,) uniformly re- 
commended these exalted ideas to the admiration of 
France and of Europe. But, the more they talked, the 
less they were heard ; or, at least, they found a dimi- 
nished degree of attention. The case is the same with 
the principle of legitimacy. They have talked of it even 
to satiety, they have written about it in so tiresome a 
manner, they have souglit to agitate the most difficult of 
questions at the very time that, as far as regards na- 
tions, it is one of the most personal nature ; for, even- 
tually, it is reduced to the inquiry, of whence comes the 
power of the prince to reign over them ? and, conse- 
quently, as they are its objects, and pay for its ex- 



168 Congress of Vienna. 

penses, it is right that they should know its origin. 
Hence, as may easily be seen, it is one of the most im- 
portant questions of the social compact; and, as it en- 
ters into the most sensible interests of the nation, there 
is no doubt but that they will make such a use of, and 
so resolve it, as shall suit themselves. I have no doubt 
but that there are now in France a great number of men 
who have opposed that legitimacy that has been present- 
ed to them, who never had and never would have 
thought of it, without these incitements. That friend- 
ship is highly imprudent which induces all these men, 
who are so ill provided with argument, to precipitate 
themselves headlong, and at the first signal, into ques- 
tions of which they know neither the beginning nor the 
end, and which they generally terminate by ruining. 
There are sovereigns who honour nations by their ori- 
ginal nobility, by glorious recollections : let us enjoy 
this benefit — let us preserve thera as our property with- 
out debating about titles ; for, in so doing, we shall be 
liable to find what we do not seek, and to seek that 
which we shall not find. What happens to the property 
of individuals will happen to that of sovereigns. A dis- 
cussion inevitably produces law. Apply it to the latter, 
dissentions must happen in states. Hather let us imi- 
tate wise architects. They conceal the foundations of 
their buildings in the earth ; and, so to express it, hide 
the secret of their solidity in its bowels. 

Let us now return to what passed at Naples. 

The expulsion of Ferdinand did not proceed, as that 
of Gustavus, from a conspiracy formed against their 
sovereign by his subjects ; or, as in Spain, by a plot 
contrived by a foreigner : but this prince lost his do- 
minions in the ordinary course of war, which places 
the conqueror in the situation of the conquered.* The 

* Montesquieu says, " In public law, the most severe act of justice is 
that of war, because it may have the effect of destroying society : to make 
war on any one, is to endeavour to punish him with death." 



Congress of Vienna. 189 

royalty of Naples in the person of Murat, was not like 
that of Spain in the person of Joseph. The nation htid 
not recognised the latter : on the contrary, she repulsed 
him with all her power. The dethronement of the 
King of Spain was founded in so odious a principle, 
that nothing could palliate it; and his prison suffieieut- 
3y explained his silence. 

It appears that a manner of proceeding, much more 
eligible, presented itself with regard to the King of 
Naples. It was evident that the fate of Napoleon 
created a palpable incompatibility between Europe, in 
the shape into which this event had converted it, and 
the sovereign established by Napoleon, and forming 
part of his family. He was his own work, and the 
work must perish with the workman. 

It was also evident that Murat was in a state of per- 
petual conspiracy against the peace of the South of 
Europe ; that he would be the rallying point of all the 
discontented, the supporter of all the conspirators, and 
the pivot on which would turn all their schemes ; which 
had for their object the injur}' of France, or the return 
of Napoleon. Experience has but too well justified their 
conjectures. 

It wf«s not less evident that Murat, the object of vidi- 
cule at Paris, the victim of rapacity in the Osnnd Duchy 
of Berg, the spendthrift and buffoon at Naples, vvas 
not firmly established in the good opinion of Europe; 
and t!jat his bravery as a yoldier could not compensate 
for wliat was deficient in his charat^.tsr as a king. He 
should no' tkerefore have beeu afif'.i-.ke'cS oa the score of 
legitimacy, but on that of t!)e gene: xl luteresits «f Eu- 
rope. The interests rec|uired tite deposition of this 
prince; and justly considered him as wn linnecessary 
appendage in its actual situation, and ^'« a source of 
coiiiinual danger. Then the Congress would have pro- 
ceeded against him with a view to the i:enes:al happi- 
ness of Europe, as well as with an author'ty, which we 
Ijave assigned to it in a preceding chapter. 

Y 



17© Congress of Vienna. 

This would have been an excellent foundation for 
discussion, the best that could have been chosen; and 
on which, in a detached discussion, the King of Na- 
ples would have enjoyed many advantages. Murat has 
been dethroned, and no one will regret him. He has 
lost his throne, as it was obtained, by war. Nothing 
is more just. He has paid by his fall for the impru- 
dence of his attack : he died like General Mack, who 
thought the Neapolitan could withstand the French 
troops. In the same manner Murat believed that he 
could conduct the Neapolitans against the Austrians ; 
and he has in like manner failed. Murat supported 
himself, in a great measure, by the hope of a great in- 
surrection in Italy : an idea at once criminal, and which 
made him deserving of his dethronement. It was an 
illusion resembling those which led Napoleon to his 
fate. This insurrection itself, when it had burst forth, 
could not have had any important effect against the 
Austrian arms. On a nearer inspection, Murat ought 
to have known, that definitively it could never have 
taken place ; for the Italians, better advised than him- 
self, would not wantonly have exposed themselves to 
the consequences of a general attack against the armies 
which Austria could always command at their frontiers, 
in opposition to Vienna. Every country is not a Spain ! 

It follows, that Murat was dethroned very apropos. 
The arguments used against him have been as mal- 
apropos ; and the prince who has been most ably at- 
tacked in the field of battle, has in that of logic been 
weakly combated. The catastrophe of Murat has been 
brought on by a defective judgment. He wished to give 
us a second representation of the farce of the descent 
at Cannes. He did not know, that nothing was so dif- 
ficult as to make the same enterprise succeed twice ; 
that there is always some difference in things which 
appear to resemble each other, and that it is in conse- 
quence of this difference that they deceive. The greater 
part of mankind endeavour to show their talent in tra- 



Congress of Vienna. I71 

cing resemblances : it would be much more sensible, 
and much more advantageous, to distinguish differ- 
ences. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



Free CitieS'-'Hanse Towns. 



The allusions that we have made to the empire, may 
be very powerfully applied to the free Hanse Towns. 
They are not considered in a political point of view, 
on account of the little strength they possess, and the 
only design of their creation having been commerce. 
These cities have no ally but the consumer, and no 
enemy but the custom-house oflBcer. They exist but in 
commerce and profit. The free cities of Germany are 
the great marts of trade, and the most flourishing towns 
in that country. The necessity of protecting commerce 
gave rise to that league, of which vestiges are still to 
be found in the towns called Hanse Towns. 

These towns, governed by their own magistrates, 
enjoy all those advantages which a paternal govern- 
ment will uniformly procure in effect as well as in 
name. 

Ease, opulence itself, and intelligence, were gene- 
rally diffused among the inhabitants of these towns. 
The most perfect and most beneficent institutions in 
Europe do honour to some of these cities. Gratitude 
will never be able to find expressions adequate to com- 
memorate, as they deserve, that infinite number of ge- 
nerous and humane actions, which, in periods of mis- 
fortune, the virtuous and sensible inhabitants of these 



17^ Congress of Vie7ina, 

towns performed for those who had become victims to 
the events that took place in France. But, in their 
turn, these places have experienced similar misfor- 
tunes. 

For ten years has Hamburgh been burthened with 
extortions. We cannot at all conceive by what right 
the Directory so uniformly applied, in moments of emer- 
gency, to the peaceable Hamburgh for continually in- 
creasing contributions. It did not dilFer from what we 
witness in Asia, in the midst of the plunders exercised 
by the pachas. But in a short time their seizures were 
not confined to the wealth, but extended to the towns 
themselves. Hamburgh, Bremen, Lubeck, were taken, 
and discovered themselves, to their astonishment, in 
the possession of France. Dantsick has ex[)erienced a 
similar fate. Thus commercial have been on a sudden 
converted into fortified towns, which, in the hands of 
experienced generals and French engineers, have be- 
come formidable to Europe. All these misfortunes are 
the consequence of the imbecility of these states. To 
appreciate fully their consequence, and the conduct 
pursued towards them, we must trace their origin. The 
barbarism of Europe was their source ; its civilisation 
has renderetl them unnecessary. Seas swarming with 
pirates may have created a necessity for associations, 
the object of which would be the protection of com- 
merce : seas, governed by the general laws of civilisa- 
tion, ought to have removed the same associations, 
which fell of themselves, in the same proportion as 
people becoming polished, formed laws under which 
commerce flourished. The guarantees which were 
the objects of the institution of the Hanse Towns hav- 
ing become the common right of all trading nations, 
there is no longer any necessity for supporting these 
associations. From that period the Hanse Towns 
have lost their importance. They had preserved none, 
but by the tradition of commerce, and by the wealtli 
which, in the lapse of time, they had accumulated. 
Commerce does not often change its habits. It na« 



Congress of Vienna, 173 

turally returns to the' place which it has once oc- 
eupied. 

We may apply the same observations to the free 
towns. When Europe was a fenced field, and its inha- 
bitants thought of nothing but war; when every part 
was covered with turnpikes, constituting the financial 
science of the time ; when commerce, confined to spe- 
culations, and an extensive change of its commodities, 
was concentred in a fixed number of privileged places ; 
free towns were necessary for the intercourse of peo- 
ple : an intercourse that, however opinions and affec- 
tions might divide them, could never wholly be inter- 
rupted. Then the free towns were open asylums of 
commerce, the magazines and rendezvous of the mer- 
chant ; for, at this period, Europe did not calculate on 
the idea of the multitude of commercial towns, mer- 
chants, and places of exchange, which, universally dif- 
fused, have opened sure and easy sources for satisfying 
all the wants of society, and the various tastes of the 
consumers. Every person has now the means of satis- 
fying each wish and each want : then, on the contrary, 
such things were to be had only in a privileged place, 
or at some particular period. The Free and Hanse 
Towns may date their origin at the same time as the 
fair, known in the ancient annals of Paris by that of 
Lande ; to which, in order to enable the students of the 
University of Paris to procure pens and paper, the 
Kings of France granted so many privileges. At pre- 
sent there is not a street in which these articles are not 
to be purchased. 

Hence the free cities were produced in the infancy of 
commerce and civilisation. They were to Germany 
what the fairs of Saint Ovide and Saint Lawrence were 
to Paris. Germany has acted in the same manner as 
Paris, and Paris as Germany ; and all the world, like 
them, by civilising themselves in the same manner. 
Every town has become a permanent fair, and all the 
worliJ a magazine, which is replenished merely to be 
emptied. 



174* Congress of Vienna. 

The great fairs are accommodating only to those, 
who, trading from a distance, and living in ill provided 
countries, are obliged to procure large quantities of com- 
modities which they came from a distance to seek. 
This is what has given rise to the great fairs in Russia, 
and those at Leipsic and Beauelaire, which attract mer- 
chants from the remotest parts of Europe and Asia. It 
is upon these principles that the Congress ought to have 
determined the fate of the Hanse Towns. The use to 
be made of them we shall indicate^ 



CHAPTER XXII. 



Portugal. — Malta . 



There are two states, the situations of which are a 
little similar. 

Malta has lost its sovereignty ; Portugal its sove- 
reign. 

England retains Malta in its possession, and pro- 
poses to make it the principal mart of its commerce in 
the Mediterranean. Its vessels will be able, in case of 
necessity, to defend it against all Europe ; in the same 
manner as the valiant knights, who humbled the arms 
of Solyman. 

This possession of Malta, so offensive to all the trad- 
ing nations of Europe, time only will enable it suffi- 
ciently to appreciate. 

During the struggle with France every thing appear- 
ed useful if her chiefs were beaten and humiliated. The 
period of reflection has arrived. We shall soon disco- 
ver that the British are at Malta. 

The seizure of Malta deprived the order of its chief 
residence, and that to which it owed its title. At the 



Congress of Vienna. 175 

game time that this order has lost its possessions in 
some countries, its constitution does not square with that 
of others already foroied, and will accord the less witli 
those about to be established. How, indeed, could any 
nation admit the existence of a sovereign order? or 
permit any of its subjects to become members of a 
foreign supreme order? How could they keep their 
doors shut to any person who could not fulfil certain 
conditions, as necessary in order to obtain admission? 
It is very evident that the same Power which granted 
its legal protection to this order of things, without a 
constitution, will refuse its protection when it has one. 
On the other hand, the order having lost all its posses- 
sions in great states, with what could it provide for its 
support, and to find for its members the advantages 
they formerly procured for them ? Thus, in France, 
the order of Malta will not find more than a million of 
funds unsold. 

Add to this, that out of Malta the order loses the 
greater part of its importance. There are some situa- 
tions which make the merit of an establishment : this is 
the case with Malta. Its situation, in the middle of 
the Mediterranean, makes the island of a similar use 
to Mount Cenis, a refuge for travellers : level it, it 
loses its value, and is attached to nothing. This would 
be the case with Malta. Situated as it is, it is the re- 
fuge of all who sail to, or return from, the Levant. In 
this position, the destination of the order was valuable 
to all the world. 

Some mention has been made of ceding Corfu to it. 
There the order would no longer be serviceable to all 
the sailors of the Mediterranean, because they pass 
Malta. It would indeed be difficult to avoid it. In= 
stead of which, a search must be made for Corfu ; and 
it is only to those who are traversing tlie Adriatic that 
it can be at all vserviceable. 

Moreover, the vigilance which the order maintained 
with respect to the Barbary corsairs is to be consider- 
ed J for the Turks hardly ever committed piracies. The 



176 Congress of Viemia. 

situation of Malta is instrumental to their suppression. 
The Barbary corsairs do not cruise except in the square 
formed by the borders of Africa, of Western Italy, of 
the Gulf of Lyons, and of Spain ; so that Malta is ad- 
mirably situated for their surveillance. All tbat is be- 
yond this to the east, is not within the navigation of the 
order. 

Besides, let us say a word in behalf of Europe ; — a 
word so long expected; — and the scandal of the Bar- 
bary Powers threatening the whole world will disap- 
pear ; and the importance of the marine of Malta will 
disappear at the same time. 

I Were they to institute a supreme order of Malta in 
every state, without unity, without a chief residence, 
and without a marine to protect the Christian states ; 
this illustrious order would gradually sink into the same 
obscurity that those orders of knighthood of which it 
was the parent, and wliich the ravages of time, together 
with the changes of society, have reduced to mere em- 
blems of honour ; but without eifective power and spe- 
cial destination. 

Even to this day the Congress has settled nothing 
with respect to Malta ; because, being in the posses- 
sion of the English, it was no longer a subject of dis- 
cussion. It appears to have been quite abandoned. 
Portugal has preserved its dorainion, but lost its sove-» 
reign. The departure of the prince regent for the Bra- 
zils has given rise to a new order of things. It is of 
him alone we intend to speak. Ought Europe to per- 
mit one of its portions to receive laws from America? 
This is a question which the residence of the sovereign 
of Portugal in the Brazils su^^gests. 

This is a question, not only of the sovereignty pro- 
per for a prince, but its object i« to ascertain whether 
Araericashall have colonies in Europe, and those colonies 
shall receive laws from America ? if, in fine, the King 
of Spain should, as Philip the Fifth and Charlen the 
Eourth were on the point of doing, establish himself at 
Mexico, and the other princes live in their colonies^ 



Congress of Vienna. 177 

Europe would become dependent on America, and the 
metropolitans would submit to the colonists. In such 
a ease, could Europe tolerate this change, or suffer 
laws to be transmitted by her own children from ano- 
ther hemisphere? Ought Europe to assume the right of 
attending to her own interest in this affair, or is the 
question to be decided by the natural right every one 
has to choose that part of his dominions for a residence 
that suits him best ? If the King of France should set- 
tle at Martinique, and the King of the Low Countries 
in Batavia, what would become of Europe?* Surely 
I am not in the number of those who would threaten 
Europe with being one day conquered by America. 

Whatever may be the rapidity of its increase, it will 
never be able to gain such as ascendency ; and Europe^ 
with its arts and population, would soon punish an 
enemy from such a distance. America could attack us 
only with a part of its population : Europe would be 
defended by the bulk of hers. Europe will never sub- 
mit to any yoke imposed by America, but that of its 
rich productions. Such a conquest is not very alarm- 
ing. 

Portugal could give laws to the Brazils, thinly as it 
is peopled, in habits of obedience contracted in its in- 
fancy. On the other hand, Brazil has not yet such a 
population and such a commerce as Lisbon. Brazil 
may have been necessary to Portugal, but Portugal 
could never have been necessary to Brazil. Therefore 
it is impossible that there can exist an union between 
two countries in such opposite situations. In future the 
same sovereign cannot govern both. A choice must be 
made. 

If he remains in America, Portugal can never sub- 
mit to become a province of Brazil : if he return to 
Portugal, Brazil, which has experienced the comfort 
and value of a local government^ would always wish to 

* When Louis XlVth threatened Amsterdam, the government of Holland 
and the citizens were in readiness to embark for BatSiVia. 

Z 



178 Congress of Vienna. 

enjoy it. Portugal, as well as Spain, would no longer 
have any subjects in America ; and as Brazil is placed 
in the midst of the movement that agitates the American 
continent, it is very evident that it will be affected by it. 
In all these cases, a separation must take place between 
Portugal and Brazil.* 

The attack on Portugal has renovated her armies. 
The Portuguese have displayed their cliaracter, and 
have not been deterred by any sacrifice ; and as impar- 
tial justice ought to be rendered to all the world without 
a regard to country, we must recollect that to the Eng- 
lish it is indebted for the regeneration of its people. 
They found them dispirited and beaten. Happy is Por- 
tugal to have found in their allies such an example of 
order amidst the disorder of war ! such models of hu- 
manity in the midst of its calamities ! Still more fortu- 
nate in having yielded to their solicitations, in prevent- 
ing those odious re-actions that have injured a neigh- 
bouring country ; as if the evils of civil war had not 
been sufficiently great, and the return of peace was to 
he regretted. 

We shall state the conduct necessary to be pursued 
by this country. The determination of the Prince of 
Brazil to fix his residence in tliat country, enforces the 
necessity of the arrangement we had proposed for Por- 
tugal, even before the resolution of this sovereign was 
made known. 

* Since this article has been written, the public papers have announced 
that the Prince Regent has fixed his residence at Brazil from the above mo- 
tives. 



Congress of Vienna. 179 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Spain. 

Spain, separated from the rest of Europe, having 
been at war only with France, and having concluded 
it with success, having neither lost nor gained any 
thing, consequently had nothing to demand of the Con- 
gress. This is a situation most favourable for delibera- 
tion. Spain, holding her territories but by the means 
of France, is from her situation but an appendix to 
Europe : with regard to her, Spain is iusular. Hence, 
she has no direct iufluenee in Europe ; and to obtain 
any, must connect herself with France. Thus did she 
act at the Congress. The houses reigning in these coun- 
tries, united in blood by the same alliances, by the same 
misfortunes, and consequently by the same wants, ought 
to show themselves united in sentiment and opinion. 
Therefore, the voice of Spaiu at the Congress was no 
other than that of France. When France made claims 
for Naples, for the (^ueen of Etruria, for Saxony, 
Spain ought to have joined her. It ought to be the same 
as to the principles of legitimacy, which are equally 
important to the interest of the Spanish as of the French 
Bourbons. This is sufficient to show the manner ia 
■which Spain acted at the Congress. 

We shall now conclude on the subject of European 
Spain. For the future, it is only in America that we 
are to seek for her. 



180 Congress of Vienna. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Cessions and Incorjporations of JVations. 

A CLAIM has arisen, which may he termed general, 
relative to the cessions and incorporations of nations. In 
no arrangement whatever could tliis have been avoided. 

The Parliament of Great Britain, to which alone, 
in Europe, belongs the power of expressing its opi- 
nions and speaking in an elevated tone, on the subject 
of the general affairs of Europe in the same manner as 
it does those of its own country, has availed itself of 
this glorious privilege, and been the cause of severe 
complaints having been made against this facility of 
dividing nations, of altering their situation, and of 
transferring them from a dominion that they liked, and 
to which they were familiarised, to one with which 
they were unacquainted, and detested ; and all this for 
the mere purpose of giving sovereigns new subjects, 
and subjects new sovereigns. 

This manner of proceeding in the affairs of nations, 
has been introduced by the military and diplomatic ope- 
rations of the last French government: what she has 
not given, exchanged, retaken, and incorporated, to 
conclude by losing all — 

The division of Poland furnished the first example of 
these attacks on the existence of nations ; attacks scarce- 
ly known in Europe since the fall of the Homan Empire, 
and the great invasions of the barbarians. The changes 
which hitherto have taken place, have almost uniformly 
been the result of marriages, successions, and pacific 
arrangements: and it ought to be particularly remarked, 



Congress of Vienna. 181 

that these changes were limited in their effects, and their 
results continued for a great length of time. Let us 
look at history, and we shall see that the least impor«. 
tant incorporations have cost much time and many ef- 
forts. At present it is quite the contrary. It is sud- 
denly, and all at once, that nations lose their existence. 
Thus Norway, Genoa, Venice, the kingdom of Italy, 
Poland, part of Saxony, and other countries, experience 
an alteration at the same instant. 

We must attend to three things : 

The number, the mode, and the motives of these ope- 
rations. 

Surely it will not be pretended that the world does 
not change its appearance, that the sovereign power 
ought always to remain in the same hands, and that war 
cannot enrich the experienced or powerful with the 
spoils of the inexperienced and feeble. The archives 
of the universe contain a multiplicity of proofs to the 
contrary.* 

War never leaves a nation ivJwre it found it, said 
Mr. Burke. This idea may be particularly applied to 
the effects of the war which gave rise to the Congress„ 
Never did the conclusion of any war leave nations far- 
ther from where they set out. 

We must not mistake the nature of the appeals 
which the incorporation and cessions of nations have 
occasioned. It is because we perceive that they have 
no other object but the gratification of personal inter- 
ests, and discover nothing occurring that has the gene- 
ral benefit in view. Neither the price nor the indemni- 
ty of the sacrifice are discernible. Assent never will 
be refused to those things, the aim and end of which is 
the general good. But with an opinion equally just to= 



* La Fontaine has said, 

" Jupin, pour chaqvie etat, mit deux tables au monde ; 
L'adroit, le vig-ilant, et le fort, sont ass is 
A la premiere, et les petits 
Mangeant leur reste, ^ la seconde." 



18S Congress of Vienna. 

wards themselves and othersj those sacrifices are refus- 
ed which appear to be merely made to consult the in- 
terests of individuals. No one, and with reason, thinks 
so little of himself, as to consider that he is destined to 
serve as the victim and food of another. 

If the Congress had in its cessions and incorpora- 
tions shown itself impelled by the irresistible motive of 
great public utility, there is no doubt but that the noble 
consolations offered by Europe to one poriion of her 
children, sustained and favoured by the general opinion^ 
would have been thankfully accepted. 

We too much distrust the empire of reason, and its 
influence over the heart. When once the justice and 
reason of any thing are well determined, there is no 
longer any point to dispute ; to demonstrate it is suffi- 
cient. But, when it is evident that no one thinks but 
of himself; that the security of Europe is no longer 
the subject of discussion, but the indemnities of such a 
prince ; that it is requisite that such and such a prince 
should have so many millions of subjects ; that such 
and such a one has retained such and such a nation; 
another has some other nation ; then appeals have been 
made, and ought to have found as many assenting voices 
as there were auditors. The pride of mankind has an- 
swered the inquiry, whether they were herds to be di- 
vided among a certain number of shepherds? 

This is an egregious error. It cannot be sufficiently 
deplored. It leaves the germ of discontent in the 
mind; it furnishes answers to those who complain that 
the people will become mutinous and difficult to go- 
vern : wonderful, indeed, that they should do so, when, 
they perceive themselves reckoned as nothing by go- 
vernments. 

At what period are attacks on the dearest property 
of a nation to be permitted ? Is it after Europe has 
resounded with the complaint against those which Na- 
poleon permitted ; is it after the repeated homages paid 
to the rights of nations ; after formal declarations to 
make every thing accord with their happiness ? They 



Congress of Vienna. 183 

could perceive this happiness in general interests, but 
never in those of individuals. How can Italy be per- 
suaded that its happiness depends on its being iu the 
possession of Austria ; Grenoa, that it should form a 
part of Piedmont ; the half of Saxony to be induced, 
for its own advantage, to increase the size of Prussia? 
They might much sooner have persuaded the whole of 
Saxony to believe it; for, at least on the part of those 
who are opposed to the incorporation, an advantage 
might have been discovered, such as forming the inte- 
gral part of a state sufficiently strong to afford an effica- 
cious protection. 

While the public spirit of Europe evinced these illi- 
beral dispositions, members, even of the Congress, talk- 
ed of the rights of the people in a high tone ; and, in 
order to oppose certain projects, affixed the seal of re- 
probation to the proposed incorporations.* It is true, 
that at the same time they condemned a part of the 
same incorporations : thus, in opposing that of Saxony, 
they consented to its division. They have maintained 
the strictest silence with respect to the incorporation of 
Italy, which was also very important. 

The Congress then has erred in this part of its con- 
duct by what it has and what it has not said ; in what 
it has and has not done. 

The cessions and incorporations of nations having 
ever been as painful a task to those which have been 
ceded as to those which have not, more attention should 
have been paid to the forms which accompanied those 
sanctioned by the Congress. This should have been 
done in a grandeur of character and a nobility at once 
worthy the cause, the authors, and the destination of 
these arrangements. Instead of this, we have heard 
nothing for three months, but arithmetical calculations 
most humiliating to human nature. 

Of this inconvenience advantage has, naturally 
enough, been taken at a period when to alter the ap- 

* See the Note of the French embassy. 



iB4i Congress of Vienna. 

pearance of subjects, and to change that of actions and 
wordsj was so much the object. This violation of the\ 
dignity of men and of the rights of nations has aroused \ 
a sense of feeling : they proved themselves attached'^tS^ 
them in proportion as they beheld them forgotten ; and 
the indignation which this forgetfulness excited, has 
been extended further than the regrets for cessions still 
more extended would have produced, if they had been 
accompanied with greater formalities. 

In reckoning by souls, they have represented the 
most noble part of man as the materiel object of the 
least noble thing, destined for the use of another. Thus 
the revolution which originated in the opinion of the 
head, has been concluded by the division of the affec-^ 
tions of the hearts 



CHAPTER XXV. 



Permanent Policy of Europe, 



The general principles of the permanent policy of 
Europe have been already pointed oHt in the various 
articles on which we have treated : let us endeavour to 
unite them under one head. Three principles ought to 
direct Europe. 

1. To incorporate her force, simplify her action, and 
organise it according to the wants and convenience of 
nations. 



Congress of Vienna, 185 

2. To separate her means of defence into two grand 
divisions, in opposition to the two Powers which menace 
Europe, viz. Great Britain and Russia. 

3. To extend general civilisation in its relations with 
the interests of Europe. 

It is evident, that by the accumulating strength of 
Great Britain and Russia, Europe will be between two 
domineering masses of power. The former threatens 
all the wealth; the latter, all the liberty of Europe. 
By this means Europe will be separated into two grand 
divisions ; the one maritime, that of the West, extend- 
ing from Norway to the straits of Gibraltar ; the other 
continental, comprehending the states situated between 
Sweden and Constantinople, from the Vistula to the 
Rhine. 

Let tliem refer to the map. 

This picture is not overcharged if we examine the 
unity of the assailing parties, and the dissensions of 
those who are to be assailed. We ought to extend the 
same opinion even with regard to Great Britain. Its 
position separating the North of Europe from its 
southern divisions, the unity of its councils, language, 
interest, tactics, iBnances, affords it advantages over the 
league of any of its adversaries, more than sufficient 
to compensate for the inferiority of its physical force. 
Surely France, Spain, Holland, and all the North, 
combine and possess more of the means that form the 
materiel of power than England can possibly contain. 
But these states cannot make use of them with the same 
facility, and are consequently less powerful. There- 
fore we must endeavour to balance these two Powers 
as nearly as the elements of which they are possessed 
will allow. We consider that Sweden, Prussia, the 
Empire, Austria, and Turkey, ought to be firmly al- 
lied, and in a state to offer a permanent barrier to Eas- 
sia : let it be remembered, that we say a state of per- 
manent barrier, not enmity. Till now in politics no- 
thing has been heard but this detestable idea. The point 

A a 



186 Gongress of Vienna, 

is not, whether we are to dispossess Russia of any of 
her present territories, to foment troubles, to solicit the 
assistance of the Poles, or to allure Sweden by a pros- 
pect of Finland. These subtle practices belong to what 
is properly called craft (/e metier), odious manoeuvres, 
which should be banished for ever from the conduct of 
affairs. Our aim is more elevated, our means more sim- 
ple. Let every one preserve what he has ; let him keep 
it in security. But as we do not live on words alone, 
let him have those securities that are necessary to pro- 
tect the weak against the powerful. 

After having committed the egregious error of allow- 
ing Russia to possess the Vistula, we must employ all 
the means of correcting it, of which the unfortunate 
situation in which we are placed will allow. They will 
be found in the alliance we have just pointed out. The 
uniformly transcendent power of Russia has changed 
every thing. It has made those allies who had passed 
their lives in hostility. For the future, the Turks will 
never lay siege to Vienna ; but the sovereign of Vienna 
will be united with them, in order to prevent the mas- 
ter of St. Petersburg from besieging Constantinople. 

This continental alliance will have for its second line 
France and the Low Countries ; for the instant that Rus- 
sia shall attack Germany by the route of Prussia, the 
defensive operations will be carried to the line of the 
Rhine ; and that it will then be the turn of France to 
advance, in order to stem the torrent. 

Russia having Austria and Prussia in her front, Swe- 
den and Turkey on her flanks, is as it were put in a 
state of tolerable restraint : we say tolerable restraint, 
because she could not be kept sufficiently in check, 
without the formation of a grand limit like that of the 
Vistula, covered with fortresses, in the same manner 
as the line of the Rhine in Alsace : instead of which, 
the defence of Austria commences in the open plains of 
Moravia and Silesia, and consequently is of no avail. 

The division of the West ought to be formed of all 
the Powers on the sea coasts. On this side^ likewise. 



Congress of Viemrn. 187 

is another Russia, to which, with a continual coalition, 
no check can he aiforded. Thus Sweden, Denmark, 
the Low Countries, France, Spain, should have, if we 
may be allowed the expression, but one flag, that of 
alliance. Every dissension on their part would pro- 
duce a common slavery. These Powers have nothing 
to envy, nothing to demand, among themselves : they 
are rendered natural allies only in consequence of the 
pre-eminence of the marine of Great Britain. It is 
their inferiority that unites them, not against her, nor 
with a view to her annoyance, but merely to their own 
protection. 

The policy of Europe will in future turn upon the 
pivot, of the circumstances of which we here give the 
principal points of view. 

If to these general ideas it were permitted us to add 
some that have been suggested on the subject of the 
system which the Congress should have established, 
not in the latitude in which it possessed the power and 
right to act, but in the limits which it has prescribed to 
its jurisdiction, we would say, 

1st, That they annihilated Italy by parcelling it out 
as they have, and, above all, by rendering it Austrian. 
It will enfeeble Austria, by the jealousies which it will 
excite, for a long space of time, and force her to appro- 
priate part of her troops to garrison it. On the contrary, 
in a system even not accordant with that which we have 
pointed out, Italy would have become a very efficient 
member of the grand European association. They have 
committed a fault very injurious to the general strength 
of Europe. It appears as if it was the regulation of the 
affairs of some prince, but never of those of this quar- 
ter of the globe. 

Sdly, That certain arrangements adopted for Germa- 
ny are to be also regretted, as they occasion a similar 
waste of strength. This country relies much on its so- 
vereigns, and little on its own power. Each division 
has its private policy, and occupies itself with its own 
little interests, without attending to the main body, or 



188 Congress of Vienrm. 

the principal interests of Europe, Mucli is lost by tliis 
system. There mast be extreme danger in suffering the 
secondary states to return to it. Hence, it was essen- 
tial to diminish this inconvenience by strengthening the 
kings of this country, in order to make them more Eu- 
ropean. There are too many kings in Germany : a 
circumstance as disadvantageous to the thrones them- 
selves as to Europe. 

3dly, That a suitable establishment ought'to have 
been made for the King of Saxony, as an indemnity to 
bim, and in conformity to the policy of Europe. 

When we insisted on the incorporation of Saxony 
into Prussia, in order to give a barrier on that side to 
Germany, we were far from wishing to condemn a 
prince, as much distinguished by his personal virtues 
as by the eclat of his rank, to the loss of his posses- 
sions. God forbid that such unwortlsy ideas should 
exist in our minds ! but, convinced that as the hour of 
sacrifice for the general benefit of Europe had arrived ; 
and as it was shown that a part of Saxony must fall into 
the hands of Prussia, a compensation equal in dignity 
and power to the offering which he would have made to 
the political constitution of Germany, should have been 
found, and that this compensation should be the cession 
of the Prussian territory between the Rhine and the 
Weser. This territory, erected into a kingdom, would 
have been more powerful than Hanover and Wiirtem- 
burg, and at least equal to the kingdom of Saxony, 
without having any of its inconveniences. This ar- 
rangement presented many great advantages : the first, 
for Germany, inasmuch as it fortified the barrier against 
France ; the second, for the body of Europe, in pre- 
venting the dispersion of the Prussian territories, and 
placing them all in front of Russia ; the third, as it 
permitted the Low Countries to reach the limit of the 
Rhine and the Moselle, which form their natural bar- 
riers. This state will remain without frontiers until 
such an arrangement as this shall take place. 



Cons^ress of Vienna. 189 

stilly, That it was necessary to restore to France the 
countries comprised by the Rhine and the Moselle, and 
in the whole of Savoy and the country of Nice. The 
treaty of Paris had despoiled her of it. The Congress 
of Vienna has delivered the country between the Rhine 
and the Moselle to several German princes, for whom 
they could find no other indemnities ; the German ter- 
ritory was exhausted. This country has been taken 
from France for three reasons : 

1st. Because it had not always been French. This 
is an idea of habit, but not of policy ; and it was not 
at the moment when other nations were appropriating 
to themselves countries that never had belonged to them, 
that the rigorous application of this wholly arbitrary 
principle should be made to France. 

2d. Because they wished to separate France as 
much as possible from Germany. This is an idea 
which fear may have induced, and partaking of the ter- 
ror yet existing which France once inspired. The ef- 
fect follows the cause. On a closer investigation, this 
fear might pass for an anachronism. They have ap- 
plied the ideas of one period to another. They always 
behold France arrayed in the terrors of its revolution, 
with the twofold strength which this revolution lent to 
it : whilst a consideration ought to have been had to 
France, returned to the ordinary habits of the govern- 
ments of Europe, pacific by nature, and still more pa- 
cific if an arrangement more appropriate to circum- 
stances had left her without any thing for which she 
could wish. The future prospects were discussed, and 
they have been regulated by the past. All the space 
delivered in this country to princes at a distance from 
each other is lost. Besides, it is not these petty sove- 
reigns that could oppose France in case of an invasion 
of Germany on her part. If Mentz was too great an 
object of terror in the possession of France, it might 
have been demolished, or counteracted, by the erection 
of corresponding defences in its front. 

5thly, That it would have been proper to have given 



190 Congress of Vienna. 

to Denmark, to which nothing has been assigned but the 
shadow of an indemnity ;— the cities of Lubeck and 
Hamburgh, with that part of the Hanoverian territories 
which are on the right of the Elbe, In vain they urge 
the importance of the freedom of Hamburgh to Germa- 
ny. What ! do they fear that in becoming Danish it 
would cease to be commercial? Does not Altoua, at 
the entrance of Hamburgh, enjoy an extensive com- 
merce ? Do not both banks of the Elbe belong to Ha- 
nover and Denmark, without injuring the commerce of 
Grermany? This is another antiquated idea, and inap- 
plicable to the present times. The same opinion must 
be given concerning that which has induced the belief 
that republics are more beneficial to commerce than mo- 
narchies. Are not all the capitals of Europe, capitals 
of monarchies ? Are Petersburg, Stockholm, Copen- 
hagen, London, Lisbon, Naples, Constantinople itself, 
a republic ? Paris carries on the principal commerce 
of France. Commerce will flourish every where, pro- 
vided this government will give it the only protection it 
requires^ which is to avoid any interference with its con- 
cerns. 

6thly, That Portugal, abandoned by its sovereign, 
fixed in another quarter of the world, ought to be as- 
signed to an European prince, who would reside in it. 
Thrones require a residence. The mutual good of this 
country and Spain requires that this prince should be a 
Bourbon. They have not been able to assign the Queen 
of Etruria any other indemnity than that which appears 
a mockery, and by no means desirable to her. Why 
has not the king, her son, been called to govern this di- 
lapidated state? This would have been the means of 
extinguishing a part of those jealousies which rage be- 
tween the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal. 

7thly, That the Grand Duke of Tuscany should 
have been appointed King of Sardinia ; and Corsica 
should be a part of his new apanage. These two 
islands, situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, 
would have experienced a new existence; by the pre- 



Congress of Vienna. 191 

seiice of a sovereign, whose attention would have been 
devoted to thera. Sardinia wil] suifer from the absence 
of its sovereign, in the same manner as Corsica does by 
its distance from France. Otherwise, of what service 
was Corsica to France? In 17^9, it cost her annually 
800.000 francs. This establishment was useless and 
expensive, and induced the belief that she held it not so 
much for her own benefit as to prevent any other Power 
possessing it. In consequence, Sardinia should receive 
Lucca; and Tuscany would possess all the coast of the 
Mediterranean, which connects Genoa with Piedmont. 

Such is the order we have considered most suitable 
to circumstances, and as easy to be established as eve- 
ry other : — it depended on the v/ill of the Congress : — 
it insured the accomplishment of the three conditions 
we pointed out as indispensable to the new state pf Eu- 
rope. 

1st ; The simplification of its system. Sd ; The 
union of its strength. And, 3d ; The distribution of 
the European Powers adapted to the public wish, and 
political and moral state of nations. 

Let a comparison be made of this plan with that 
which the Congress had before it, and then let it be con- 
sidered which would have accorded best with the at- 
tempt which has occasioned this assemblage of Europe, 
in all the brilliancy of its majesty, in all the extent of 
its power and of its intelligence. 



19^ Congress of Vienna. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

The twofold state of Euro'pe. 



After having treated in succession of all the states 
of Europe, would not the picture be incomplete, were 
we not to remark a singularity amidst them, for the first 
time since the creation of the world. Every thing al- 
most exists in a twofold state. Europe may be called 
twofold, politically ; civilly and religiously. 

At the opening of this Congress this twofold exist- 
ence was more discernible tlian at present. Some of the 
decisions of the Congress, the enterprise of Napoleon, 
and the particular arrangements between some princes, 
have obliterated many traits of this singular position. 
Let us take some pains to pursue this subject. 
Sweden has an acknowledged king, and one who 
prefers his claims to the throne. 

A little time ago there were two competitors for the 
throne of Naples. 

The Spaniards were divided between Charles the 
Fourth and Ferdinand the Seventh.* 

Many men now living have reigned where others 
reign now. 

Sweden and Norway, 
Holland and Belgium, 
Russia and Poland, 
Prussia and Saxony, 
Austria and Italy, 
Piedmont and Genoa, 
present total or partial unions and incorporations, often 

* See the treaty between the fathei* and his son. 



Congress of Vienna, 193 

on the pretence of equality, sometimes even of supe- 
riority. Some of these states have their original laws : 
thus Norway has a separate diet ; the divisions of Po- 
land, attached to Russia, Prussia, and Austria, accord- 
ing to the terms of the treaty, ought to have a represen- 
tation and national institution. Italy is not to be govern- 
ed by the laws of Austria and Hungary. 

If. from Europe we pass to the colonies, we shall find 
that the white and black flag dispute the possession of 
St. Domingo ; that the ancient white proprietors demand 
of the new black masters the restoration of this fertile 
island, and that they cultivate it anew for them : we 
shall find the immense American Continent all in arms^ 
the blood flowing on all sides, for the liberty of the new 
world, in opposition to the dependence in which the 
old wishes to retain her, in order to the maintenance of 
that superiority and domination claimed by Europeans, 
in contra-distinetion to the equality and emancipation 
sought for by their trans- Atlantic children. 

Portugal and Brazil are still united in name ; but in 
an inverse position to that which existed previously to 
the prince departing for America : the difference in their 
former and actual state is so great, they can no longer 
maintain their ancient ties. 

Surely the sun has never shone on such a scene in 
the natural world. If we look to the events of the mo- 
ral world, they present the same spectacle. In how 
many countries is not the land considered as belonging 
to two proprietors ? 

What place is there that has not had many claimants, 
to be met with every day? 

It has been said that a twofold spirit animates and 
has taken possession of mankind. Words have twofold 
acceptations, actions twofold operations ; and to make 
these balances less just, party always holds the beam. 

The dogma has ceased to be a subject of discussion : 
it is consolatory to consider that it has remained an ob- 
ject of respect for all the world. But divisions have 
been established in a manner to protect religion, by its 

B b 



194 Congress of Vienna. 

relations witli society. Some wish to make it of conse- 
queuce by the rigorous maintenance of legal observan- 
ces : others, without weakening them, consider morali- 
ty as more peculiarly the safeguard of society. 

Particular actions, useless in this place to allude to, 
have given rise to this line of demarcation : it ought to 
show the imprudent, how the light in which they view 
a subject may be different from that of the rest of the 
world. 

We will hasten to a conclusion, though it would be 
easy to go still further. But our point will be carried 
if we have shown how necessary discernment and pru- 
dence are to prevent so many elements of discussion 
becoming the principle of discord, and the means of 
giving rise to great moral conflagrations. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



Errors in the conduct of the Congress. — Religion. 
Colonies. — Commerce. 



Religion. 

It is not only the political order of Europe which 
has been distracted in the course of the revolution ; it is 
not only territories and governments that have been af- 
fected by those subversions, intended by the Congress 
as a remedy : the whole even of its social order has 
also been affected by disasters similar to those expe- 
rienced in the political world. In si.ort, the moral has 
been as much disturbed as the political world. 



Congress of Vienna, 195 

This observation principally applies to three circum- 
stances : the state of the Catholic worship ; Colonies ; 
Commerce. Great misfortunes have, at least, had the 
effect of bringing men, who remain much divided ia 
their opinion on other topics, to be united on this ; 
namely, that religion is the basis of society. The prin=. 
ciple is recognised, and there will be no more opposi- 
tion on the subject. The consequence of the establish- 
ment of this principle is, that the civil state of worship 
will be permitted to remain uncertain and precarious. -^ 
The Catholic religion is that of the greatest part of the \ 
inhabitants of Europe. This quarter of the globe con- % 
tains little less than a hundred millions of men attached % 
to this mode of worship. Its civil state has been entire- 
ly changed by the revolution. 

The Catholic clergy throughout Europe were raised f 
to a high rank, both as to honour and to fortune. A / 
great number of its members, as well as ecclesiastical \ 
bodies, ranked among sovereigns. In all political so- / 
ciety, the clergy assumed the first rank. It was the / 
general law of Europe. It is that of Great Britain with! 
regard to its peers. The clergy has now almost every • 
where lost its rank and its wealth. In France, in Ger- 
many, in Poland, it occupies no space in the political 
world, and is confined merely to the exercise of its spi- 
ritual functions. We have since beheld this exclusion 
attempted in a country that has always shown itself very 
much attached to the Catholic religion, and to its mi- 
nisters. The fundamental law of the Low Countries, 
that grants distinctions of nobility, has assigned no 
rank to the clergy, in the new organisation of the state. ^ 
In France the clergy finds itself in a situation very dif- 
ferent from what it was when the Sugers, the d'Am- 
boises, the Wolseys, the Richelieus, the Mazarins, 
the Grandvelles, the Fleurys, so powerfully, wisely, 

* In France we have gone still farther; for, at the two latter meetings of 
the Electoral Colleges, not a single clergyman has been nominated. This is 
truly an unique example in the history of a modern nation, that lives under 
the administration of the Christian religion. 



196 Congress of Vienna, 

and with such eclat, administered the affairs of the 
greatest states of Europe. 

The clergy, in order to serve as intellectual guides 
to the people, ought to be very intelligent. Those to 
whom is confided the business of instruction, should 
know more than those who are to be instructed. Also 
those, whose business it is to regulate and correct the 
conduct of others, should not be in a state of depen- 
dence upon them ; otherwise the ministry is connected 
■with that which is considered as inferior. Thus intel- 
ligence, and independence, are distinct and essential 
attributes of the existence of the clergy. But, in its 
new state, it is attacked in two principal sources of its 
existence. 

First ; By the nature of the elements that contribute 
to its renewal. 

It is necessary to consider well the constitution of the 
ecclesiastical state. 

The ecclesiastical education is tedious and expensive. 
The Catholic priest is naturally sequestered from all 
the lucrative occupations exercised by otiier professions. 
He cannot, like them, add to, or vary his pursuits. For 
him there is but one, and that is for life. Therefore, 
viewing him in this light, he is placed in a condition 
very inferior to that of the other orders of society. The 
numerous and various degrees of rank, of which the 
ancient hierarchy was composed, exist no longer. The 
number of situations is so uniform and so small, that it 
leaves but little difference between a poor bishop and a 
curate still more poor. The means of obtaining situa- 
tions, and the motives to emulation, are thus at once 
taken from the clergy. Consequently, those classes that 
formerly beheld in this mode of life, means of existence 
as honourable as they were certain, have no longer the 
same attraction. Parents, who regard themselves as 
more immediately charged with the fortune than the 
vocation of their children, will have no temptation to 
put them into a way of life that offers such a slender 
recompense for the sacrifices made to it. The compo- 



Congress of Vienna, 197 

sition of the clergy will necessarily be affected ; and, 
consequently, the existence of tiiis body will experience 
an alteration. Its virtues will remain the same. There 
is, and always has been, much araoog the Catholic 
clergy ; but, in its renewal among less enlightened 
classes, in occupying their attention with objects less 
elevated, they will not attain the same elevation as their 
predecessors. 

Second : The means on which the clergy subsist are 
drawn from the taxes paid by the people. It was Jo- 
seph the Second that furnished this great example of 
relieving his own wants, and derogating from the laws 
and habits that Europe had for ages supported and fol- 
lowed with respect to the clergy. The Catholic wor- 
ship is defrayed like all other branches of the public 
service. But it is necessary to observe, 

First ; That, in a moment of necessity, the clergy is 
most in danger of being neglected, as they are suppos- 
ed to be the most passive. This is the second time, in 
the course of two years, that the ecclesiastical payments 
have been so far in arrear as to make the members of 
the Church of France experience the greatest inconve- 
niences. 

Second ; That the clergy being generally composed 
of younger sons of poor families, almost all uniformly 
living from their respective homes, and not being able 
either to add to, or change their occupations, is still 
more dependent on the state, and filled with persons 
unable to support the weight of this inconvenience. 
Men placed in so high a situation in the state, require a 
greater degree of certainty, as to their means of sub- 
sistence, than those who live under a less severe disci- 
pline. The contrary is the case at present. 

This exposition should be sufficient to show that the 
state of the Catholic clergy is affected in such a way, 
that it ought to engage the attention of governments. 
Religion, and all that belongs to it, are objects of too 
high importance to be neglected by any of the parties 
that contribute to its maintenance. It is not necessary 



198 Congress of Vienna. 

to replace the clergy in the rank of sovereigns, any 
more than to restore them to the enjoyment of the 
wealth that they had acquired as legitimately as they 
have relinquished it courageously : hsU it is necessary 
that their situations should be so »"eg'ilated, and inde- 
pendent, as to leave them equally distant from their for- 
mer opulence and actual indigence ; for, after having 
been an object of envy, they should not now become 
one of pity. The clergy ought not to be in a state of 
uneasiness on account of their daily support, indepen- 
dent of the exercise of the functions, of which nothing 
ought to vary the freedom and the dignity. It may ea- 
sily be believed that we were justified in expecting that 
this subject, so important to the social guarantees of 
Europe, would have found a place among the discus- 
sions of Congress. The state of the Church was refer- 
red to it, and was the initiative of this important ques- 
tion. But, in a short time, the appeals were confined to 
the great chapters of the churches of Germany. As 
these bodies are not precisely the most solid supports 
of religion, we shall confine ourselves to an observa- 
tion, that nothing resulted. 

To these general considerations on the state of the 
Catholic clergy we most add two others. 

The first; concerns the exercise of the papal autho- 
rity. 

The second, the new spirit that animates the clergy. 

All the world has been disgusted with the violences 
that the two last pontiffs have experienced. The pro- 
ceedings were so destitute of those habits of respect 
that should have protected the father of all Christen- 
dom, and which should have supplied the place of the 
sovereign power which he had lost^ that there was no 
one that did not feel himself injured by the outrages of 
which he was the object. To personal ill-usage was 
added the plunder of his property. To see its chief 
clothed with the most respected attributes among men^ 
and which, after so many ages of grandeur, was sought 
after with anxiety, is a common benefit to the Christian. 



Congress of Vienna. 199 

world ; and, perhaps, the finding it in a state inferior to 
the idea that had been formed of it, as well as destitute 
of the rank that had been assigned to it for ages, gave 
rise to errors. At Rome, the Pope should be the in- 
violable sovereign of all his states, having nothing to 
do with any political quarrel. His safeguard should 
he found in the morality of the Christian world. In 
that alone ought to be his guard and his army. 

But it is also necessary that the Pope, on his part, 
should only see in all Christendom a society to be kept 
tranquil, not to be governed ; that every pretension, 
every return to that antiquity, of which the vestiges 
and signification are lost, should finally disappear. This 
is not antiquity. [La vetuste n'est pas Vantiquite.) 
But without anticipating the events of the times — with- 
out pressing at least their advance, we should not re- 
tard but follow their progress. Let the bounds between 
the temporal and spiritual interest be so ascertained, 
that they shall be no longer confounded. How, in fact, 
in these times, can we expect to attach men to any thing 
under the name of religion, when this very thing occa- 
sions the churches, situated in those states, the sove- 
reigns of which are not of the same opinion on the sub- 
ject of the temporal interests of the Pope, being left 
without pastors ? How are men to be made believe 
that the spiritual power should be sustained by the tem- 
poral, and the temporal avenged by the spiritual ; and 
that religion passes for nothing in this manifest contra- 
diction of the nature of things? On the contrary, no- 
thing can be more injurious. How are the men of the 
present age to be made understand that acts most ne- 
cessary to tlie government of the church, such as the in- 
stitutions of primitive pastors, should be considered but 
as a simple favour? 

The Court of Rome will surely return within those 
limits, the overstepping of which will lead to the most 
serious inconveniences. It will not push ifs victory, a 
very great one, so far as to be charged in its turn with 



200 Congress of Vienna, 

ambition and a spirit of conquest. Thus, in latter times, 
have we seen bishops submit, on a simple order from 
Rome ; and changes that should only have resulted 
from the observance of forms at onee recognised by the 
church and the state. These invasions have, as was to 
be expected, been checked by appeals. They are sure- 
ly sufficient to put the Court of Rome on its ^uard 
against the effect of similar enterprises, and to prevent 
their recurrence.* 

This court will soon discover itself in a position that 
will compel it to alter its conduct. It will provide for 
the changes that are taking place in a part of Christen- 
dom. Catholic Poland is divided between two sove- 
reigns, who are not of that persuasion. The acquisitions 
of Prussia on the Rhine have given it for subjects 
those of the former electors or ecclesiastical princes. 
Belgium is governed by a prince, not of the same reli= 
gion as the ancient sovereigns of the country. However, 
the spiritual wants of these provinces, and the relations 
consequent to them, will not change with the govern- 
ment, and they will continue to address themselves to 
Rome. Therefore, there will be established between 
the Pope and these sovereigns, communications of a 
nature yery different to those that have heretofore ex- 
isted. Thus the King of Prussia wiil be considered at 
Rome, as a simple Marquess of Brandenburgh. Holland 
will be no longer restricted to the government of the 
Austrians. The powerful sovereign of Russia, reckoning 
among his former and present subjects in Poland many 
millions of Catholics, will be regarded by the Pope as 
the head of the Greek Church of Russia. It will be the 
same with the Catholics of Ireland. They are become 
too numerous, too turbulent, too much patronised by a 
party in Great Britain itself, to avoid obtaining a 
footing, which will give rise to the constant intercourse 
of the British Grovernment with the Court of Rome. 

* See what passed in 1814, relative to the Bishoprics of Constance and 

Basle. 



Congress of VienncL gOl 

Tiie King of Wiirtemburg erects bishoprics and 
founds Catholic nniversities. Tiie Grand Duke of Ba- 
den has acquired Catholic provinces. All is changed in 
the relations of the Court of Rome with a great number 
of sovereigns, to whom it has hitherto been a total stran- 
ger. The existence of this new state of things is wor- 
thy of observation, and requires a great attention on 
the part of the Court of Rome, not to offend princes 
bred in ideas foreign to its own, and who will attach 
no great degree of importance to things that hereto- 
fore have bpen considered as highly so in the sacred 
college. 

A part of the European clergy has submitted to the 
most cruel privations for fifteen years. It has come out 
of it covered with glory ; and a glory still more pure, 
as it is entirely personal ; for it passed the whole time 
without chiefs, without hope, without country, without 
fortune, without any other ties than those of duty, and 
from none of which has it strayed. 

In all countries, the clergy has proved itself much 
attached to the governments under which it has been in 
the habit of living. In Poland, in Belgium, at Venice, 
in Spain, in France, every where has the clergy proved 
itself equally faithful. In Mexico it is the clergy that 
supports the cause of Spain. Governments may calcu- 
late on its zeal. They will find it religiously observing 
all the engagements which it contracts. But to these 
titles to glory, the clergy adds that of being able to pe- 
netrate the spirit of the times, in the midst of which it 
exercises its august functions : that to add more eflBca- 
ciousness, let them be always presented as a benefit, 
and their acceptance rather induced than commanded ; 
let them penetrate to the heart as a mild light into deli- 
cate eyes. Let the clergy, in continuing to be enlight- 
ened by the intelligence of Bossuet, prove itself to be 
also penetrated by the benevolent morality of Feuelon ; 
let there be banished from the midst of it all sorts of 
contention, all of those melancholy divisions that give 

C 6 



SOS Congress of Vienna. 

the appearance of there being two churches, when in 
fact there is but one ^ being no longer the exclusive 
sourse of intelligence, let it always find with them an 
hospitable asylum ; let their understandings be ardent 
and lively, but never violently exercised ; more direct- 
ed towards the present and the future rather than to- 
wards the past; and, that nothing may ^eaken the 
respect that in all countries, and at all times, is paid 
to talent and virtue, in diverting the attention from the 
changes that have every where taken place; a change 
that has assigned it a wholly new situation io the human 
Blind.* 



Colonies, — St. Domingo. 

Colonies have opened sources of wealth, that have 
changed the face of all Europe. Let us recollect that 
the epoch of their discovery was but the sixteenth cen- 
tury. But two principal streams proceeding from this 
source, are diverted by the events of St. Domingo and 
Spanish America. It is an elementary principle ; and 
applies to colonies, that tliat which belongs to one, 
concerns all others, the principal wealth of Europe pro- 
ceeding from colonies, and distributing itself generally 
among its inliabitants. They serve as channels to con- 
vey fertility into the centre of Europe. Colonies are 
the Nile of Europe. But in what state will they find 
themselves after the ravages of which they have been 
the victims for the past twenty-five years ? 

* It is with regret that we have seen the Belgic clergy foment, by Its ex- 
ample, considerable opposition to the acceptance of the law proposed by the 
king. The pretext on which it supported itself was destitute of foundation, 
and made it run the risk of losing its consideration in the opinion of all Eu- 
ropeans. As to any thing else, all that has passed on the part of the Bel- 
gian, Italian, Spanish, or Irish clergy, merits the attention of governments, 
2\nd of the men who administer them. 



Congress of Vienna. 203 

St. Domingo threatens to become the Algiers of the 
West Indies. Her chiefs have induced us to fear that, 
if attacked, they will leave but a heap of ashes moisten- 
ed with blood. There, destruction and extermination 
will form the means of defence ; there, we cannot cal- 
culate on abdications, on arrangements, that in Europe 
amicably ^rminate so many affairs : at St. Domingo all 
is to be devastated. If such is the situation in which 
we expect to find it, it is much better to leave it as it is ; 
for, in fact, however deplorable may be this order of 
things, in j^j commercial relations it has fulfilled the 
great end of every colony. We may, at least, buy and 
sell at St. Domingo : and this twofold communication 
between the metropolis with the colony, and the co- 
lony with the metropolis, may be preserved. We are 
far from entertaining the opinion of those who would 
prefer seeiftg St. Domingo swallowed up by the sea, 
than possessed by a black population. This much re- 
sembles the idea, ^^ Perish our colonies, rather than 
our principles.^' But, in case of an attack on St. Do- 
mingo by an armed force, if the negroes are killed, if 
they withdraw to the Mornes, it will require numerous 
corps of troops to confine them to this situation, and 
prevent them rushing out with fire and sword ; we can- 
not perceive how St. Domingo would be more profitable 
for France than for its proprietors. The slaves destroy- 
ed, others must be purchased. At what price? In what 
number ii Will those who are disembarked from Africa 
in this land of insurrecti«n be for ever ignorant of the 
ideas of independence, that have roused and armed a 
population similar to themselves ? It is very probable 
that with these very recruits we should do nothing else 
than find soldiers for Christophe and his descendants. 
The whole business of St. Domingo is within a circle of 
crimes committed and crimes to punish ; a labyrinth of 
difficulties, formed to engender difficulties still more 
^rmidable : the fetters with which Laacoon fell encum- 
bered were less inextricable ; and the head of the Fii- 



SO-i Congress of Viertna. 

ries, beset with serpents, does not cause tlie terror oc- 
casioned bv this more monstrous assemblage. 



Trans 'Atlantic Spain. 

It is also in the name of independence thfl; the vast 
continent of South America is shedding* its blood. 
From the straits of Magellan to California, a dreadful 
conflict exists. It is the most terrible civil war at which 
humanity has ever shuddered. Spain hl^ exhibited 
herself in America as she has in Europe, firm and fero- 
cious ; although often generous^ inflexible in her opi- 
iiions, invariable in her determinations, equally im- 
moveable and inexorable. To Spain, blood, ruins, all 
signify nothing- — she triumphs, and that is|p, sufficient 
justification. Thus in Caraccas and in Venezuela, the 
same towns have been taken, retaken, and sacked ten 
times. Monte Video resisted to the last. Buenos Ayres 
has shown itself indefatigabFe in tlie pursuit of inde- 
pendence. The Spanish character, ever the same in all 
climates and situations, is truly remarkable. 

America, separated from* Spain, resembles a vessel 
floating on a tempestuous oc^ean that has lost its crew. 
It was Napoleon who, in attacking Spain, cut the cable 
which attached the vessel to the shore. But, while 
Spain was throwing off the yoke of France, America, 
on her side, prepared to thro\^^off that of Spain. This 
evidently was a natural conclusion. The ideas of in- 
dependence that for a long time have fermented in the 
bosom of America, could not fail of exploding on re- 
ceiving the first spark of liberty. Never was there so 
favourable an opportuity, and a good use was made of 
it. 

But, while this dreadful contest continues, who is to 
cultivate the fields of America? Who is to buy the 
merchandises of Europe ? Who is to explore the mines 
that Europe and the whole universe pay for them ? If 



Congress of Vienna. 20§ 

they figlit in Mexico,* we suffer in Europe. This evil 
should have been remedied ; and to what subject could 
the Congress have more profitably turned its attention? 
What better could they have done, than have thus 
proved that they acted not only for Spain, but for all 
Europe, which is visibly affected by these trans- Atlan- 
tic commotions. It was according to the same order of 
general ideas, in which may be discovered the means 
of preventing the ruin of St. Domingo. Its resistance 
will continue, because it expects that it will be France 
alone with which it must contend. Perhaps it would 
alter its opinions, if it discovered that all the colo- 
nial powers were combined against it, and had de- 
termined to inform its leaders, that no assistance 
could be expected by them till they had returned to 
a state of good order, and furnished a guarantee for 
the enjoyment of the advantages that would be assured 
to them. 

Considering the stage at which the business has ar- 
rived, America belongs no longer to Spain. Directly 
she only belongs to herself; and, indirectly, to the 
main body of Europe. Thus, it is not without the live- 
liest sentiments of regret, that we see Spain engaged 
in expeditions which terminate in their own ruin, and 
have no other object but the extermination of their 
American brethren, aspiring to liberty, by the means 
of some thousands of soldiers who have reconquered 

* In ordinary times Mexico sends annually to Europe : 

In money 32,000,000 

In 1814, there was only coined in Mexico , . . 7,624,132 
In 1813, they have coined in copper ..... 6,124,132 
It is the first lime since the Conquest that copper has been coin- 
ed. 

The diminution of the quantity of merchandise has been still more con- 
siderable. In 1788, Mexico consumed annually more than five millions 
worth {we presume sterling; but M. de P. does not state. Translator) of Eij. 
ropean merchandise. For this it remitted a larg'e sum. This traffic is 
stopped : What a loss to the two countries ! This will explain the reason 
of the scarcity of specie in the United States, 



S06 (Congress of Vienna. 

that of Spain. What can it think of doing with a 
few regiments, landed on this immense continent, and 
liaving to contend with its whole population, which the 
announcement of the attack will not fail to unite ? The 
councils of Spain, always so pre-occupied with an idea 
of the importance of the tributes, of Mexico and Peru, 
which Ihey believe should supply every want that Spain 
experiences from the folly and defect of her adminis- 
tration, are strangely insensible to the state of the two 
countries. Do they figure to themselves that these are 
the same Indians who could not resist the handful of 
men led by Sortez, Almagro, and Pizarro? Are not 
the Americans, whom they would thus insult, the de- 
scendants of these illustrious warriors ? Can the cabi- 
net of Madrid conceal that tlie arms and the animals, 
before which the Indians, shrunk with terror and af- 
fright, fell on their knees, are in as common use in 
South America as they can possibly be in Spain ? It 
is just as if they were to attack the Russians, in hope 
of not finding them armed with any thing else than the 
arrows used by their forefathers. If we could feel any 
other sentiment than those inspired by the calamities 
that these fatal mistakes inflict on those who are their 
victims, we could not avoid smiling, to behold the 
great confidence placed in similar enterprises, and see 
the authors of these plans with an handful of men 
scarcely sufficient to retain one point, trace a triumphal 
route on the surface of the globe. It is like a train of 
ants clambering up a mountain. Has it not thus uni- 
formly happened ? The expedition of Morillo, so 
long and so extensive in preparation, the language of 
whose leader was so arrogant, has yielded to all the in- 
conveniences universally attached to distant expedi- 
tions, and particularly the Spaniards. Their delay, 
their carelessness, their diet, are the principal enemies 
to their success. At the moment of arrival, disease 
lias already reaped its harvest of part of the troops. 
Another portion has perished, with its valuable effects, 



Congress of Vienna. 207 

by one of those defects ia management so common 
amongst Spaniards. The remainder will be eonsum= 
ed in these burning regions, while expecting the rein- 
forcements, destined to experience no better fate. All 
those which have landed find themselves opposed to 
forces infinitely superior in a system of unconquerable 
defensive war ;* and the very chief who, before he left 
Europe, had, in idea, already engulphed America, was 
seen trembling, submissive,! and not daring to set his 
foot on shore. Every expedition fitted out by Spain 
against Auierica will share the fate that its invincible 
armada did against another enemy. The British pow- 
er, even assisted as it is by the ability of its sailors in 
expeditions of this nature, would be far from adequate 
to an attack on the Continent of America. What, then, 
can be expected from tardy and necessitous Spain ? j 
Far from these expeditions having the power of restor- 
ing her colonies to Spain, the only effect will be, that 
she will irrevocably lose them. All the Americans will 
unite against her, as they did on the appearance of Mo- 
rillo's expedition.il Again, people annoyed by the at- 
tacks, by the intrigues of the mother country, and em- 
boldened by their own success, will finish, by destroy- 
ing the connexion with her into which opinions, the ties 
of blood, the similarity of manners, of language, and 
habits, would have led her, and have continued to as- 
sure to her a lucrative preference ; the only one of which 
Spain is in want. 



* The Spanish Americans carry on the wai* against the European Spa- 
niards in the same manner as the latter did against the French. 

f See Morillo's Proclamation on the departure of his expedition from 
Cadiz. 

t Spain is attempting to effect, against the whole population of South 
America, with one of ten millions what Great Britain could not effect with 
sixteen millions, against two millions and a half of North Americans, aided 
hy German troops. 

IJ See the Buenos Ayres Proclamation, and that of the Mexican Con- 
gress. 



308 Congress of Vienna. 

Therefore Spanish America is for ever, and wholly, 
separated from Spain. She need only have been par- 
tially so ; but will finish with altogether losing her. 
These are two very different things^ and Spain should 
have distinguished them.* 

It has been often said, that the conquest of America 
has depopulated and ruined Spain. We may be assur- 
ed that another conquest would inevitably finish the 
work of the former. To terminate this sanguinary 
scene should have occupied all the attention of the Con- 
gress, and a most desirable end would have been ob- 
tained. By this act alone it would have rendered it- 
self the benefactor of the universe. 

There are other considerations well worthy our at- 
tention. 

First ; That when even, in order to pay an unseason- 
able homage to the possessive rights of a nation, Europe 
had abstained from an interference between the metro- 
polis and the colonies, the former would not be more its 
mistress : she would only be in that situation in which 
she was placed by the separation of the United States 
and Great Britain. Hence, in forty years two similar 
cases will have presented themselves. At that period, 
American agents were spread over every quarter of 

* Since the above was written, it has been announced that Morillo has 
began the siege of Carthagena. It calls to our recollection the result of 
Admiral Vernon's attempt against the same town. 

The object of this enterprise is to furnish Spain points d'appid for the 
troops she proposes to send to America. 

Whatever success may attend a few actions, (success is generally various 
jn war,) the result of this contest is the no less certain. The misfortunes 
of Spain and America may be prolonged ; but the lot to be found in the ve- 
ry nature of things will not be changed. 

In the course of the war between the United States and Great Britain, 
Generals Howe, Gage, Clinton, Burgoyne, and Cornwallis, commenced their 
operations with great success. The two last finished by surrendering as 
prisoners of war, with their whole force, 

A general rule : Every war carried on by a metropolis against an exten- 
sive and well-peopled colony, must terminate to the disadvantage of the 
latter. 



Congress of Vienna, §09 

Europe. Spain herself received them, and a short time 
after assisted them with all her power. Europe will 
soon discover the new sources of wealth that will be 
thus opened to it. In the latter, the envoys of Mexico, 
of Lima, of Buenos Ayres,* are expected. The citi- 
zens of the United States swpport in every Way their 
brethren of these countries. A triumphant insurrection 
cannot fail to add to the assistance of that still in pro- 
gress. On their side, a great number of Europeans 
form temporary and permanent establishments on the 
American continent. f These are constantly annoyed by 
the attempts of Spain, always ready to present them- 
selves with their exclusive right, the only regimen with 
which it is acquainted. Will not all governments finish 
by taking part with her subjects? The commerce of 
this country is so advantageous, that for the future no 
government will possess means of preventing its sub- 
jects taking part : therefore the interference of govern- 
ments will become indispensable, and we may easily 
see the part that it will take. 

Second ; It is probable that the reiterated attacks of 
Spain upon America will embitter the minds of its inha- 
bitants, induce them to reject the monarchical form of 
government, and uniformly give themselves up to a re- 
publican administration, of which they have, at their 
very doors, a very seducing example. If it is too true 
that the principles and example of the revolution of the 
United States have, in a great measure, produced that 
of France, what will not be the effect produced in Eu- 
rope, when all America, excepting the Brazils, shall 
be governed as a republic ; and, above all, when the 
representative government shall become nearly that of 
all Europe ? And did not subjects so new, dangers so 
great, and advantages so important, not form a subject 

* The Buenos Ayres deputies are already in London. 
-}• See the accounts given of the produce of American commerce for the 
years 1812 and 1813. 

B d 



glO Congress of Vienna. 

worthy the attention of Congress? The moment that 
this great question will occupy the public attention is 
at last arrived. Woukl it not be fortunate for Europe 
to be able to imitate Great Britain at the termination of 
her troubles, when she threw a crowd of men, rebel- 
lious in principle as we;ll as habit, on her still savage 
colonies, and in an half century after they opened new 
sources of wealth and prosperity on these fertile shores, 
and with the same hands that had torn in pieces their 
own country ? Europe experiences the same want. She 
would experience the same relief from an order of things 
that would attract to the colonies a great number of the 
persons whom the chances of revolution have deprived, 
of those habits of quiet and security that society ex- 
pects from its members^ and that, in their turn, its 
members should receive from itself. The States of the 
North have the greatest interest in the solution of this 
question, and particularly Great Britain.* Spain her- 
self, who, by a spirit of prejudice to system, is fright- 
ened at what she terms the loss of the Americas, and, 
in endeavouring to retake them, spends so much, as to 
make their loss more certain and more quick. Spain is 
not less interested in the immediate independence of her 
colonies. 

First; Because it was very evident that she could no 
longer reign there. They are inevitably lost. 

Second ; Because the prosperity of America, the in- 
separable fruit of her emancipation, will turn to the pro- 
lit of Spain as well as to that of Europe. 

The more her colonies prosper, the more will Spain, 
be benefited. America will enrich her former metro- 
polis, to whom then she will cost nothing. The United 
States have enriched Great Britain, since the supposed 
misfortune of her loss. 

We have attended closely to this question, it having 
occupied our whole life : since the more we compare 
its elements with those facts that we have been able 

* See « The Three Ajres of Colonies." 



Congress of Vienna, ^11 

to obtain, the more are we convinced that, in a few 
years after the independence of America, Europe will 
possess neither strength nor materials with which she 
can furnish the markets of America. But let her hasten 
to succour the latter. Each man whom war destroys 
in America is a consumer lost to Europe ; and in the 
state of depopulation in which she is at present, it is 
an irreparable loss. Let America be free. Let her 
ports, like those of the Brazils, be opened to all flags 
without exception or preference, and Europe has no 
more to desire. ^ 



Commerce, 



However military Europe may have been, she is 
about to become commercial. If, of late, her attention 
has been diverted from this course, she is ahout to re- 
turn to it ; in order that she may be enabled to remain 
in that situation, and protect herself from the injuries 
and misery that this deviation has occasioned ; that 
she has made those truly prodigious efforts which have 
led to her release. For the future it will be in the 
power of no one to arrest her flight. An elegant and 
judicious writer (M. Benjamin de Constant) has placed 
this subject in a very clear point of view. It is not dif- 
ficult to foresee that for the future, war will have com- 
merce for its object. We fight for territory, when all 
wealth proceeds from it. We shall fight for commerce, 
because it will be found still more productive of wealth 
than territory, and that the latter owes all its value to 
it. All nations are called, and at all times, to assem- 
ble in this arena. May it never be stained with blood I 
May God confine their peaceable contests to a pursuit 



^IS Congress of Vienna. 

of industry, as admirable for the developement of their 
talents, as tlie increase of their wealth ! But this ten- 
dency to commerce throughout Europe is favoured by 
many motives and various means. Commerce should 
be employed to increase civilisation, and civilisation in 
its turn v^^ill tend to the increase of commerce, and, by 
its means, to the augmentation of the general wealtii. 
Let us explain ourselves. 

Europe is covered with a commercial population, 
which much surpasses all the wants of commerce. 
There are more mer#ants than there is commerce. 
All the intermediate classes of society have pursued 
it ; a circumstance widely different from former times, 
when it was confined to a smaller number of persons. 
This change proceeds from the diffusion of intelligence. 
Since the middling and lower classes have so gene- 
rally participated in the education hitherto reserved 
for the higher ranks, the increase of wealth has 
induced a desire for the increase of fortune. The 
expense of education is not incurred, except to reap 
its fruits. These fruits are fortune and social con- 
sideration. Employments cannot be multiplied as 
much as the intelligence produced by education; 
therefore they must be sought in some other channel, 
not to be found in the social order, and this channel 
is commerce. The elements, the language, the rela- 
tions of commerce, having become a common science, 
those men of wiiooi we speak have found, in this 
new kind of occupation, the means of obtaining for- 
tunes that society otherwise would wholly deny them. 
Thus is created that multitude of persons that in all 
great cities direct their attention to commerce; but in 
its ancient condition it was not extended in the same 
proportion. It is no longer sufficient to employ all 
the persons wishing to pursue it; therefore we must 
labour to give it the required extent. But, where 
are to be found the means? In a better colonial 
order, and in the efforts that Europe should make 



Congress of Vienna, ^13 

to carry civilisation wherever it has not yet reached ; 
and, above all, to extend the taste for the enjoyments of 
Europe, which spring from the produce of her territo- 
ry and of her industry. Every country which neither 
buys nor consumes any thing produced by Europe, is 
to her as if it had no existence. Every European 
taste communicated to a country is equal to a new dis- 
covery of this very country. Then it is, in this sense, 
that we extend the mutual relations of commerce and 
civilisation, and yield the support that should be af- 
forded them. 

St. Petersburg rose, and was civilised. The com- 
merce of Europe penetrated thither. St. Petersburg 
was thus, at that period, born as to Europe. Civilisa- 
tion attracted commerce to it; and commerce, in its 
turn, extended and confirmed civilisation. One hun- 
dred and fifty years ago North America was savage, 
Tincultivated, and a forest. In 1810, it possessed twelve 
thousand commercial vessels, and its shores exhibit tlie 
finest cities in the universe. Was this produced from 
any thing else but the combined operation of commerce 
with civilisation ? 

When Egypt was occupied by the French, what Eu- 
ropean ought not to have rejoiced to behold this fertile 
country, hitherto so degraded, about to become subject 
to the dominion of Europe, and to see the habits of Eu- 
rope established among its new inhabitants, and the 
manners which they would adopt. Did it signify what 
European people prevailed in Egypt, provided the 
tastes, the industry, the wants, and the activity of Eu- 
rope were introduced there, and assumed the place hi- 
therto occupied by idleness, ignorance, poverty, and 
that debasement of mind and fortune by which the de- 
scendants of the people that erected the pyramids and 
formed wonders which ennoble the country of Sesostris 
and Ptolemy are distinguished ? The same observa- 
tion applies to colonies. When we insist on the ne- 
cessity of hastening their separation from their metro- 
polisj what is our o|union as to its final result? Is it 



214 Congress of Vienna. 

not to furnish them, by means of the civilisation that 
the presence of a local government, similar to those of 
Europe, will not fail to introduce amongst them — to 
give them, I repeat, European tastes, the gratification 
of which will tend to the increase of European wealth? 
for, of this we ought never to lose sight. Of course, 
each step that civilisation makes in the yet new coun- 
tries will turn to the profit of Europe. For example, 
see the sovereign of the Brazils transplanted and fixed 
in that country. What an increase of benefit of every 
kind will not his presence produce? In twenty years 
we shall not be able to know the Brazils — they will 
proceed from one increase to another : but who will 
profit by these ameliorations ? Will it not be Europe ? 
Why ? Because to her will it belong for ages to sup- 
ply Brazil. The more it prospers, the more of Euro- 
pean commodities will it require. When the Prince of 
the Brazils quitted Lisbon, that very day was the fur- 
niture of his new palace ordered in Europe, at Lon- 
don, in Paris, and Lyons. Extend this idea, and 
place at Mexico, at Lima, at Buenos A^'res, govern- 
ments like that which exists at the Brazils, and we 
shall discover what will be the result to Europe. W^hat 
new movement, what new wealth, what new enjoy- 
ment, what new intelligence, will not spread through- 
out Europe by the exploration of these unknown lands, 
by the innumerable and ever increasing relations of 
these new countries ! In a little time it will be impos- 
sible to recognise them. 

We have before expressed a wish to see Servia and 
Bosnia united to Austria. With similar satisfaction 
should we behold Wallachia and Moldavia attached to 
an European government. Why? Is it to increase 
the power of this government? Assuredly not : but it 
is to reattach to Europe countries whicli are in her 
neighbourhood, without forming a part of her. Thus, 
when short-sighted politicians congratulated them- 
selves at seeing Egypt wrested from the French, and 
Moldavia from the Bussians, what did they do but 



Congress of Vienna. 215 

congratulate Europe on her beholding countries disin- 
herited, into which civilisation was about to enter in 
the effects of an European domination ? It is the ab- 
sence of civilisation and European tastes, which foils 
Europe in these countries. Consequently, their pre- 
sence will produce them. Therefore carry to them the 
tastes of Europe, the civilisation of Europe, and they 
will be valuable to Europe. There is no necessity for 
domination, but only to communicate our manners, and 
what is wished for will follow : it is an error which has 
lasted too long, that of believing a domination over a 
country gives the only means of possessing and deriv- 
ing advantage from it. The contrary is well demon- 
strated, and particularly in the case of colonies, the 
commerce, not the property of which, is of importance 
to the metropolis. 

We have passed fifty years in demanding the expul- 
sion of the Turks from Europe. This is not so easily 
to be achieved ; for the Turks will defend themselves 
like the Spaniards, whom they very much resemble. 
We should inflict, and truly without success, a horrible 
evil on humanity. Well ! when the Turks should be 
massacred, when they should become wanderers and 
brigands, when their cities should be destroyed and 
their fields desolated, what will have been done for 
Turkey, and of what use would Turkey be to Europe? 
What would be the fruits of this horrible idea? We 
should commit an error as absurd as it is cruel. It is 
not the territorial, but the moral conquest of Turkey, 
that ought to occupy our attention. It would be rude 
and savage habits that should be attacked : not the 
arms of Europe, but its arts, its manners, its tastes, 
that should be made to penetrate thither. The edifice 
of Barbarism, that weighs down this unhappy country, 
and renders it unproductive to Europe, should be over- 
thrown. The unfortunate Selim has marked out this 
transition to the manners of Europe; and the latter has 
the greatest interest in seeing that empire resume its 
march. 



216 Congress of Vienna. 

Therefore it is demonstrable, that the combined ope-^ 
ration of commerce and civilisation should become the 
principal and common occupation of Europe ; and that, 
in its actual state, the latter has the greatest interest in 
labouring to increase their united influence.* 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



Unfortunate Condition of EurojjeanSy and consequent 

Dangers. 

The revolution has added much to intelligence, and 
the means of obtaining it. Whatever dispute there may 
be on this subject, relative to the points in which it ought 
to be viewed, and the suggestions that may be offered, 
this fact remains the no less certain. Whatever may be 
the nature of this intelligence, and the effects rightly or 
erroneously attributed to it, (a discussion, into which it 
is notour intention now to enter,) it exists. It is only 
necessary to reflect on the character of the men that now 
inhabit the world. It is but to hear and see what they 
are in common with their predecessors. It would evince 
too much simplicity, or rather blindness, to believe that 
so many events, so many discussions, as well as so many 

'* We read, in " The Three Ages of Colonies ;" 

" If it is acknowledged that the affairs of Europe can only be arranged 
" in a congress, it is evident that those of the colonies still more urgently 
*' require the same assistance : for it will be necessary on these accounts 
" to discuss all the questions attached to European states more than those 
" involving their peculiar interests." 



Congress vf Vienna. 217 

exertions made by every one, should leave mankind 
where it was twenty-five years ago. 

There have been changes. These are undeniable. 
But have we reaped an advantage from them ? If more 
general intelligence, and of a superior nature, does 
exist, is there to be found more happiness, or is it more 
diffused among men? On the contrary, does not Europe 
offer the appearance of a society more perfect in its na- 
ture, but more miserable in its existence ? 

We are much induced to believe this. Four principal 
causes appear to us to produce these misfortunes. 

First; The military character of all governments. 

Second ; The still increasing burthen of taxes. 

Third ; The oppression of subjects by governments. 

Fourth ; The inequality between the fortune and the 
intelligence of the majority of Europeans. 

Europe has become a barrack ; and this miserably 
furnished barrack exhausts her population. 

Europe, with the exception of Turkey, possesses 
about five hundred and fifty millions of inhabitants. 
This population amounts to nearly three millions of sol- 
diers and sailors. 

It is one man out of fifty, or the double proportion 
of that assigned to it by the best calculations, widch 
the state of human nature will allow to the military 
character. 

Five hundred and forty- seven millions of men are 
born, and labour during the whole year, in order to 
pay, feed, clothe, and lodge three millions. It vi ould 
be curious to ascertain what each soldier cost in com- 
parison with a private individual, A frightful fViffer- 
ence would be discovered. The one destroys and de- 
solates ; the other builds and fertilises.* 

* " A new disease has extended itself throughout Europe. It has reached 
our princes, and made them retain a disproporcioned number of troops. 
It has its paroxysms, and necess.'rily becomes ccatf.giouis ; for as soon as 
one state increases the number of its troops, others s luddenly augment 

E e 



gl8 Congress of Vienna. 

That every state should keep up the number of 
troops necessary to its internal and external safety no 
one can deny ; but that the number of troops should 
have no other bounds than the national ability to sup- 
port them, or the example of the neighbouring Pow- 
ers, is truly inconceivable, but the idea unfortunately 
exists. 

Louis the XlVth braved all Europe, confiscated and 
incorporated all that came within his reach ; wished to 
reign at Brussels, at Madrid, and send the Dutch to 
Batavia. Hostile to all the world, he armed against 
it; and, in return, every one opposed him. Europe fell 
on him with its whole force, and he defended himself 
with his whole people. If we read his story, we shall 
find, that with eighteen millions of French he kept 
up armies* comparatively more numerous than Napo- 
leon did with forty-two millions. He supported this 
expense for a great number of years ; and the dying 
monarch thought he expiated his errors towards an 
almost breathless and depopulated country, by saying 
to his successor, " / have been too fond of war^ It 
appears that these words made no very profound im- 
pression on the latter ; for we find him keeping up, in 

theirs, so that nothing but the common ruin is achieved by it. So much 
is Europe injured, that individuals, who would be in the situation of the 
three most opulent Powers of this part of the world, have not whereon to 
live. We are poor, with the wealth and commerce of the whole universe ; 
and soon, in consequence of having so many soldiers, we shall have still 
more soldiers, andishall be like Tartars. The consequence of such a situa- 
tion is the perpetuial augmentation of taxes; and that which prevents all 
future remedy, we can no lons^er calculate on revenue, as war is made with 
the capital. The prophecy has been accomplished" — MoNTEsaxJiEU. 

* From 1689 to [1695, Louis XlVth kept up an army of more than 400,000 
infantry and 60,000 cavalry. At the same time his fleets amounted to more 
than one hundred large vessels, many of which mounted above one hundred 
guns. This was the age of the French marine. 

During the samj; period, from 1639 to 1695, there was created for extra- 
ordinary affairs 45rO millions, le marc (Targent a 32 francs. It is certain 
that this was owintj to the bankruptcy of Law and a French revolution. 



Congress of Vienna. SI 9 

the war against Maria-Theresa, 400,000, and 350,000 
in that he waged on her account ; for these two wars 
offered but the appearance of one being but a passage 
into the other. Louis the XlVth died insolvent, to 
the amount of what would now be equal to four mil- 
liards. At his death, Louis the XVth was in no better 
situation. 

In the course of the war just finished, the military 
efforts of Europe were carried to a pitch that almost 
exceeds belief. In short, Europe has become a camp. 

Great Britain,* which has never supported large ar- 
mies, has kept up a very numerous one. Its marine 
has been much increased : and we have seen a country, 
the population of which does not exceed seventeen, 
millions, devote more than 400,000 men to its land and 
sea service, and support it with, who can believe it ? an^ 
expense of 800 millions ! 

It has been with troops as with luxury. Emulation 
operates upon both objects. Because one has so many 
troops, the other must also obtain them. Hence, con- 
scriptions that trade in Europeans ; taxes, and all their 
inevitable consequences, oppress the people. While 
an equality exists, what effect do numbers produce? 
The greatest interests may be decided by the most 
trifling armies. Numbers signify nothing. 

An army of twenty-two thousand men gave Csesar 
the empire of the world in the field of Pharsalia. 

An army of ten thousand gave to Henry the Fourth 
the throne of France on the plain of Ivry. The multi- 
tude of soldiers have nothing to do with the decision of 
affairs ; and if princes assemble such large ones, it does 
not arise from an actual want. 

Europe has been flattered with the hope of seeing a 

* Adjutant-General's Office, 25th Dec. 1814, 

In 1814 324,971 

Peace Establishment . 91,185 
1814, Militia . . . 63,753 



220 Congress of Vienna. 

correspondent reduction take place in all states. The 
idea was salutary and humane, the execution of which 
would have honoured the decisions of Congress. This 
is the reason we read of Austria reducing her force to 
300,000, Prussia to gOO,000; so that, from reduction 
to reduction, Europe would be disarmed. 

It appears that in this, as in many other things, we 
act not in proportion to the sources of popular strength, 
but the use that we can make of it. 

One evil ever inevitably involves another. Soldiers 
occasion taxes. Governments are well acquainted with 
this circumstance, and that it is not the least part of 
their business. 

The moment we have soldiers, that instant we must 
have taxes ; and, reciprocally, the more taxes the more 
soldiers. This is inevitable. Therefore nations have 
not been asked, what they consider as necessary to their 
prosperity : it has been only ascertained how much 
they were able to pay. The exigencies of the state have 
not been regulated by the welfare of the people, or the 
capability they are supposed to possess of supporting 
burthens. 

Behold the financial state of Europe. It inspires 
terror. For twenty years there have been nothing but 
bankruptcies, paper money, another species of perma- 
nent bankruptcy ; confiscations, requisitions, forced 
loans, anticipations ; the present time always advancing 
towards a previously exhausted futurity. 

Great Britain, in the midst of her triumphs and her 
wealth, offers a spectacle well worthy of our attention. 

An interest on her National Debt of 800,000,000 
francs. 

A Military Establishment of 500,000,000 francs. 

A Naval Establishment of 600,000,000 francs. 

In this statement we see the nature of the discussions 
that occupy the attention of Parliament. By the mere 
dint of taxation and wealth, by this combination, that 
at first view appears contradictory; things are arrived 



Congress of Vienna. 22i 

at a height, that agriculture is threatened with being 
abandoned, if a protection against foreign competition 
15 not granted. This is necessary to enable the farmer 
io subsist : if he gains a profit, the consumer must die 
of hunger. This evidently is contrary to all social or- 
der. The clashing of the interests of the producer and 
the consumer is manifestly occasioned by taxes ; which 
raise the price of land, and all the means of its culti- 
vation, to a rate infinitely higher than it would have 
been, without the accumulation of the charges to which 
it has been subjected. 

In Austria, for twenty years, her finances have not 
been placed in a state of order. This country, ever 
possessed of a regular supply, but never a superabun- 
dance, has not been fortunate in her financial expedi- 
ents. Every three months some admirable plan for the 
amelioration of the finances is announced ; and as re- 
gularly, under the operation of these plans, they become 
worse. 

All the princes of Germany are in debt. 

We do not speak of some of the Italian states, nor 
of Spain. This country has something else to do, than 
attend to the details of administration.* 

France, without possessing the most extensive funds 
in Europe, has the most real and solid basis. This 
circumstance results from the proportion of the re- 
ceipts effected at a fixed expense, and annually dis- 
charged. France, peculiar for being in this unexpect- 
ed state, after all the pictures that have been drawn 
of her exhaustion, furnishes this abundance of public 
treasure by means of the greatest sufferings.! The 

* We must recollect the forced loans made in all the commercial towns 
of Spain, and the financial state of that country, as well as every thing that 
has been published on the state of the Pope's finances, and those of the 
King of Sardinia. 

■j- We truly feel that this picture is only that of the finances, previous to 
the evils produced by foreign Invasion, as well as the last treaty. It is fair 
to presume, that the consideration of this abundance, continuing aftev 



S33 Gongress of Vienna. 

land-tax takes from the proprietor the greatest part of 
his income ; so that almost every where the proprietor 
is little more than a cultivator for the benefit of th^ 
revenue [le colon du fisc). Such an inequality between 
the produce of taxes and the price of all the objects 
either of commerce or consumption has been created, 
that no proprietor who does not add to his landed reve- 
nue one arising from industry or a public situation, can 
bring up his family, or live in common comfort. All 
the departments situated from the left bank of the Loire, 
to the Alps and Pyrenees, are filled with proprie- 
tors of an annual income from three to five thousand 
livres, the fee- simple of which is worth one hundred 
thousand francs, or thereabouts, who live in wretched- 
ness, and experience every difficulty in the educa- 
tion of their children. The disorder in this respect is 
very great, and wholly arises from the excess of 
taxes. 

The indirect taxes in France on consumption, and in 
certain transactions, are also very heavy. 

The Salt Duty subjects the article taxed to a duty 
many times heavier than its original value. 

The Assessed or Consolidated Taxes [Droits Reii- 
ms)'excite universal horror. The detestation of which 
they are the object, is diverted by being attached to 
those who assess or collect them. They should be 
reduced to those which have the supply of the real 
wants of the state in a moment of emergency for their 
object; but governments do not think how much 
they can spare the people, but how much they can 
extract from them. Provided the rope does not snap, 
(we may be pardoned for the vulgarity of this ex- 
pression,) it is of no consequence to what length it is 
stretched. 

Ideas of luxury and emulation in public monuments 

such a crisis, has confirmed the severity of foreigners relative to an opu- 
lence that they fear as much as they envy. 



Congress of Vienna. 233 

liave gained ground in some countries. We seem to 
wish to form towns into monuments. Shortly the idea 
will he adopted as to whole countries. Self-love is 
flattered by this demonstration of power ; but the peo- 
ple pay dear for this satisfaction.* True monuments 
are to be found in the good taste of individuals and the 
comfort of nations. An opulent and happy nation is 
of itself a sufficiently fine monument ; but, unfortunate- 
ly, one of the most rare. It gratifies the eye at least as 
much as domes and columns. 

France has expended, in a few years, one hundred 
and fifty-five millions of francs in public works and mo- 
numents. 

The City of Paris has absorbed almost all this enor- 
mous sum. Many of these works are really useful ; 
others are only distinguished embellishments. But, what 
a charge upon a whole country for a single town !| 

London is the finest city in the world; and in it there 
are fewest monuments erected at the public expense. 
To the good taste and wealth of the inhabitants it is in- 
debted for those it possesses. 

The cities of Holland and Belgium are superior to 
any other in Europe, The respective governments 
have done nothing for them. There the inhabitants 
have furnished for their own gratification, what in other 
countries is done at the public expense. 

America presents, in her cities, habitations the best 

* After the battlo of W'urchen, in May, 1813, Napoleon ordered that a 
monutnent should be erected on Mount Cenis, to commemorate the names of 
all those who had been engaged in that affair. This monument was to cost 
twenty -five millions. What a subject for reflection does not this facility of 
disposing of the wealth of nations create, in order to gratify such ridicu- 
lous fancies ! ! 

f Unfortunate is that country of which artists take possession. What 
have they not cost to France, to Spain, to Italy, to Saxony, to Bavaria, 
where their masters have given way to a profuso taste for the arts, and 
have in consequence patronised artists to an injurious excess, in conse- 
quence of listening to the poets and academies svho have celebrated these 
chefs -erauvres .' 



2%-ii Congress of Vienna, 

calculated for the convenience of men that have hithert© 
existed. With some exceptions at the new capital, the 
public purse has contributed nothing. 

It is remarkable, that it is in the south of Europe ; 
that is to say, in Catholic and despotic countries, in 
which the condition of the people is the worst, where 
the most expensive monuments are to be found. It may 
be said that they are but veils, behind which the public 
misery is hidden, in order to divert the attention from a 
contemplation of what must disgust it. 

For twenty-five years past the results arising from the 
conduct of governments has been to accumulate on 
their subjects the heaviest burthens that war could pro- 
duce, and most especially by the way in which they 
waged it. Men are become a species of projectile force, 
destined to be used one against the other to their mutual 
injury. By taxes, paper money, bankruptcies, and re-^ 
quisitions ; a practice well worthy of the Turks ; by a 
thousand other arrangements that governments have 
made use of to obtain possession of the fortunes of indi- 
viduals, men have at present no property. In the course 
of one month we have seen Russia declaring the whole 
property of the empire mortgaged for the maintenance 
of its paper; and Austria, on her side, avow that the 
tenth part of the property of her subjects was necessary 
to her wants. At what point things have arrived in 
Great Britain we may discover, as well as how much the 
wants of the government have surpassed every thing hi- 
therto known in that land of true liberty. For twenty- 
five years every thing in Europe has been made to 
square with politics, and nothing has been allowed to 
yield to individual comfort, which is the true object of 
all human associations.* 



We may apply to Europe in general what Mr. Burke said of the revo- 
iutionary government in particular. 
^ f Individual comfort is entirely left out of their system of government. 
" The state is all in all. All belongs to it that will produce power. After. 
" wards all ig entrusted to the use of power." 



Congress of Vienna. SS5 

The light in which society has been viewed is 
changed, and the nature of things is wholly altered : 
the political world no longer exists for the social system^ 
but the social system for the political world. The ac- 
tion of government has been always rapid, inevitable, 
and too often inflexible. Individuals have been too 
much separated one from the other ; or, so to express 
it, confined to themselves : then, comparing individual 
Weakness to the power of government, no man could 
feel himself disposed to enter into the unequal contest^ 
States have been divided into a multiplicity of parts 5J 
authority present every whcre_, but the subject is never 
permitted to partake of it. These governments are be- 
come like so many nets in which men are to be caught. 
From hence, has arisen an impression of terror on the 
score of government. It lasts still, and will require a 
long time to efface. It is terror that explains how 
France has always obeyed, with the same facility that 
she permitted the various governments, in their turn, to 
render themselves masters of the supreme power. As 
they all proceeded in the same manner, with the same 
gens- (Par mes, with the same punishments, with the 
same commissaries, with the same removals from au- 
thority, the public mind, oppressed under an equal 
weight, has ever found itself in the same situation. It 
has not varied for twenty years. Properly speaking, 
there have only been dictatorships in France from the\ 
14th of July, 1789, to the obtaiiraient of the charter ini 
1815. The Constituent Assembly was a dictatorship 
of thirty months. It would be going too far to say, 
that it was a legislative assembly ; the passage of a mo- 
narchy impossible to be maintained, into a democracy 
as impracticable to be defined : a democracy rendered 
hideous by its conduct, frightful by the horrid grandeur 
of its acts, incessantly bordering on the extremes of 
courage and ferocity. The Legislative Assembly could 
occupy but a small portion of space between these 
colossi, of which it rather marked the separatioE that 
became the bond of connexion. 



%%Q Congress of Vienna. 

The Directory seized, lost, and regained the dictato- 
rial power. It availed itself of the 18th Fructidor to 
repossess itself of it. The 18th Brumaire was made 
subservient to the raeasore of its removal. The same 
ahsolute power has uniformly prevailed till the 31st of 
March, 1814. It reappeared under Buonaparte the 
SOth of March, 1815. Each dictator has commanded, 
terrified, taxed, displaced at his pleasure, has been 
obeyed with the same facility, we may say with the 
same ardour. Whence arises all this ? From the reign 
of terror. It survived its authors. Men pass away, 
but an impression remains, and the same disposition 
exists in the mind. It has its essential principle in the 
twofold state of legislation. There are two codes. The 
number of laws being infinite, each individual in power 
having created his own, by the preservation of those that 
lie did not repeal, the whole of legislation was but a 
labyrinth in which a regular system was no longer to 
be recognised. Safe on one side, we did not think our- 
selves so on the other. In the midst of the farrago of 
laws that bore down France, who could possibly act ac- 
cording to all of them ? Exception is always on the side 
of the law, and in its favour. For example, individual 
safety is guaranteed by the charter : still more, by all 
the constitutions that have been made for twenty-five 
years. But in the same codes are to be found laws that 
are not repealed ; and they are such as, after the most 
formal guarantees for individual safety, grant, as here- 
tofore, the right of suspension. [Senatus Consulte 
organique, an 12.) The press is declared free ; but 
we have seen a four months discussion to ascertain 
whether to repress abuses was the right of suppression 
by the previons censure. We have attached to a certain 
hook {volume determine) the power of printing without 
the previous censure, and the legislation on this subject 
has not been yet ascertained. The liberty which the 
press now enjoys is much more a matter of fact than of 
right, and the magistrate contributes more to it than the 
legislator. It is owing to the complication of law that 



Congress of Vienna. SS7 

we have seen additions to the constitution, called the 
Constitution of the Empire, although no one observes 
nor knows how to apply them. To this first considera- 
tion we must add that of the increase of the armies 
The greatest enemy to the mild spirit of civil life is that 
of the military one. History is false if this assertion is 
not true. The more soldiers are formed, the more ene- 
mies are there to liberty ; the more numerous the ele- 
ments of despotism. The Pretorian Band at Rome, the 
Janizaries at Constantinople, the Imperial Guard at 
Paris, were all equally incompatible with the liberty of 
the various nations, and did not permit any idea of 
liberty nor independence to exist. In such a condition 
nothing remained but resignation. The military pro-"" 
fession having been so much extended in France, it 
having become the only road to honours and to fortune; 
a taste for, and fear of its members, combined to form 
the national mind ; and in this state is it now to be found 
a condition perfectly anti-civil, and wholly subversive 
of the great object of society,* 

The uncertainty attached to places under government 
is an aggravation of the misfortunes already remarked. 
It is impossible to have an idea of the facility with which 
they are dismissed by government, who discharge these 
public officers, deprive them of the means of subsistence, 

* There exist many good men, who, guarded by four invalids, have been, 
for a great number of years, regarded as legislators. If a prince is furnished 
with a numerous corps of troops, blindly attached to him, he may, in an in- 
stant, become the master of the state. It was the imperial guard that formed 
the foundation of the power of Napoleon. He augmented it in proportion 
to his wish to augment his power. When he was at the head of a phalanx 
of 40,000 men, entirely devoted to him, when it is known that the great am- 
bition of the soldiery was to form a part of this guard; that it was the sole 
end they had afterwards in view ; he imagined that he had the right to me- 
nace, with this guard, bot!i France and Europe, and that behind this rampart 
he could dare to do any thing. We may well recollect the renown of this 
corps, and the tone it assumed. It was the idol of the people, the terror of 
every thinking Frenchman, and made Europe tremble. 

It was this guard, which, in 1812, was employed in searching for those 
conscripts, which the repetition of conscriptions had made desert throughout 
the empire. At this period we could reckon more than 160,000 deserters. 



SSS Congress of Vienna, 

and refuse to fulfil the engagement contracted with 
them ; interpret in their own way, or annul the contract 
always formed between him who performs, and him who 
has services performed for him : also the world is filled 
with a number of men who have held situations and em- 
ployments, who sre capable of attending to public busi- 
ness, and wiio suffer, in all respects, most essentially 
from being deprived of them, in consequence of a want 
of employment, and the means of reaping its fruits. 
Nothing is so much calculated to keep up sentiments of 
dislike and factious dispositions in a state. 

Government being the centre of all interest, attract- 
ing every thing towards it, teaching every thing, selling 
every thing, mixing in all transactions, there necessarily 
results a multiplication of agents in proportion to the 
complication of interests. This bureaucracy is become 
the canker worm of states, the leprosy of modern socie- 
ty. Tise nuiP.ber of persons who form these ad4i"iinistra- 
tive armies is immense. It has contributed to extend 
that unrestrained taste for public offices, which is to be 
remarked every where. There is not one of those agents 
that is not a tax. But, how are they treated ? With 
what facility are they displaced, thrown back into ob- 
scurity and misery ! New arrangements succeed to new 
parties, and gives rise to an incessant change. If the 
state should be the least in want, reductions take place; 
payments are suspended; nothing is fixed ; forms vary 
every hour ; delays are created ; the least error in exe- 
cution suspends the most lawful claims; life passes in 
attendance and dependence, and concludes at last in 
misery. This is a frightful condition, and unfortunately 
it is that of a great number of Europeans. It would be 
dreadful to enter into a calculation of the number of 
those persons, who, in the course of twenty-five years, 
have lost their fortune, their rank, their situation ; and 
who, in hopes of repairing some portion of honour or of 
fortune, exhaust themselves in pushing through the 
crowd; which, in consequence of having suffered so 
much itself^ reg^ards them with as little curiosity as pity. 



Congress of Vienna, 2§9 

Let us consider that, with the exception of that of 
Great Britain, all the public banks have failed ; that a 
great number of governments have been many times re- 
newed ; that the administrations have been also changed; 
that their agents are comprised in these alterations. If 
we do this, we may form an idea of the number of vic- 
tims. 

The education of all classes of society is nearly the 
same, and all the world can obtain it. But all persons 
are not possessed of the same fortune. Among those 
persons who participate in the means of instruction, 
some in quitting their studies meet poverty, with its 
horrors ; others wealth, with its enjoyments. But, it 
also frequently happens that these persons, out of fa- 
vour with fortune, are not so with Nature, and that 
they are equal, or superior in faculties, in information, 
to those who possess a larger proportion of worldly ad- 
vantages. What are the sentiments which are then ex- 
cited within them ? What attempts are not made to 
establish an equality between fortune and talents ! 
Again, if the best means present themselves the first, 
as, for the welfare of society, should always be the 
case ; but, on the contrary, what hateful comparisons, 
what envious and ambitious projects exist in their 
hearts, and inflame their passions ! It is in this crowd 
that are to be found men, ever prone to mischief, at the 
service of every person in power, and who obstruct the 
avenues of all the places in which it is to be found. It 
is not to be doubted, as we have seen so many persons 
eagerly endeavour to obtain stations in those classes of 
society that are superior to them ; the distinctions of 
whicij they cannot obtain, in the wealth of which they 
cannot participate ; it is to this principle that we must 
attribute the evil. Avarice has assumed the mask of pa- 
triotism, and man has become sophistical, plundering, 
ferocious, in order to establish a balance between his 
interests and the talents he supposes himself to possess^ 
From this picture of the different causes, it is evident 
that the whole social order of Europe is deranged. The 



2S& Songress of Vienna, 

evil increases daily, and must produce melancholy con- 
sequences. The situation of Europe is therefore far 
from good. If we consider it en masse it is very 
wretched. More intelligence than happiness is to be 
found in it. There are some persons who conclude, 
that it is this intelligence that has occasioned the loss 
of happiness. On the contrary, it is because it has been, 
governed in defiance of this intelligence that it has be- 
come unfortunate. Thus the multiplication of troops, 
of taxes, of constraints of every species, are not in con- 
sonance with intelligence, but in direct contradiction to 
it. The appeals made against these acts are the conse- 
quence of this intellectual light ; and if this intellectual 
light, the object of so many absurd and ridiculous com- 
plaints, has been unable to arrest the course of this dis- 
order, it is because it meets on all sides with an oppo- 
sition of interests, of passions and prejudices. These, 
armed with power, are incessantly occupied in endea- 
vouring to overturn or destroy the salutary effects that 
those intellectual lights cannot fail to produce, if suf- 
fered to preside in the government of man. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



Of Political Writers, and their Relations with the 
Preservation of Peace, 

"War has been made for twenty-five years, and we 
have always spoken of peace. There were those who 
v/ould have persuaded us that they wished for peace, 
and it was their adversaries that desired war. All 
feigned a desire for peace. It has been by constantly 
keeping peace in view that people have been induced 
to support the war. To make war, in order to conquer 
peace, lias been the universal cry. At last this peace, 
so ardently desired, so long expected, has arrived : but, 
in order that the world should enjoy it, it will be ne- 



Congress of Vienna. 231 

cessary to banish that tone and language which embit- 
ter the actions of man, and ulcerate his heart. They 
have succeeded too well in dividing the interests of 
men, and in rendering those enemies who are in fact 
members of one family. The custom of the Eastern 
sovereigns on their accession to the throne, with regard 
to their unfortunate brothers, has been too much adopt- 
ed in the political world, and by those who occupy it. 
'No', being able to overcome our enemies, we appear to 
think that we cannot sufficiently hate them; that we 
cannot sufficiently insult them ; that we cannot suffi- 
ciently provoke them ; and that it is not in our power 
to i-reat them with sufficient atrocity and perfidy. In 
consequence of being constantly repeated, the language 
Las become universal. There are nations of whom we 
can only speak with insult, because we have insulted 
them for twenty years.* The most odious imputations 
have been received into general usa^e, and become a 
part of our vocabularies. We have even gone so far as 
to represent the happiness of some as incompatible with 
that of others. In short, we have seen professors of na- 
tional hatred. 

This doctrine proceeds from the school of Caen. 

It is time to put an end to these detestable practices. 
The cure must proceed from whence the malady sprung 
— politics and political writers. These are the inter- 
preters of nations with regard to one another. They 
speak but through the organs of this class of men, and 
the sentiments with which they meet in their writings 
pass as the legitimate expression of the sentiments of the 
nations to which they belong. They become responsible 
and bound with the writers who speak in their name. 
They are exposed to submit to the efl'ects that arise 
from those feelings, to which these writings shall give 
birth. Now that our materiel armour is cast aside, let 
that armour which may be termed moral armour be also 
cast aside, this armour still more envenomed in its ef- 

* Recollect the language used relative to Great Britain for the past 
twenty years ! 



S3S Congress of Vienna. 

fects than the former. Let the language of peace sue- 
ceed to that of war. Let us act like the Romans, when 
they deposited their military vestments and assumed the 
habits of peaceable citizens. In vain will " peace " be 
inscribed on the public records, if the feelings of war 
still exist in our hearts. In vain will the language of 
peace have been used by the representatives of nations, 
if only the language of war is to be found in the mouth 
of their interpreters. Let us understand the matter. Do 
we wish to lead men to mutual extermination — to be- 
lieve that a good neighbourhood is impossible — to grieve 
at the prosperity of others-— to seek in all their actions 
for causes of criminations and sinister designs ? If such 
is the intention, it is in vain that we speak and think of 
peace. What sign of reconciliation does it present to 
men, visiting a country, if they hear only incessant com- 
plaints of the ambition, perfidy, and malevolent views of 
their^ hosts ? Let this dishonourable and murderous 
language have a termination ! Let all provocations, 
suspicions, and imputations, disappear. Let each nation 
iind in the writings of others, the same safety offered 
them by their territory. Let dignity preside in our judg- 
ments of the actions of other nations, for none can with 
propriety be assailed or contemned. Let benevolence 
either palliate or conceal past wrongs. Let our mutual 
envy be that which we can exercise without offence ;— 
that of virtue and talents. 

Unfortunately we are far from this point. Works 
that have attracted the public attention, (and we take 
these works for our sanction,) have too powerfully im- 
bibed those hostile sentiments. In them, in order to 
support propositions that, to say the least, are forgotten, 
full half a volume* is dedicated, to form a complete 

* The work of M. de Bonald, in which he shows :— 

1st. That the left bank of the Rhine ought, three months after the treaty 
of Paris, and while the Congress was sitting at Vienna, to have been given 
to France. 

2d, That the Pope ought to have been placed at the head of the Euro- 
pean republic. 



Congress of Vienna. S33 

treatise on the inconveniences of a ceded possession, 
which they well know will not be given up, and vvbich 
if attacked would be protected by ail Europe ; as if the 
loss which they had sustained had not been the source 
of sufficient regret; and that in thus renewing their 
afflictions, they would find areraedy for them. Hence, 
after a long train of imputations more than severe, they 
conclude by affording advice which places a nation al- 
most in ambuscade against another, and which would 
induce her seriously to prepare herself for the re-posses- 
sion of a benefit that had just been wrested from her. 

Is this really peace, or only a hollow truce obtained 
merely in order to prepare for war? What will be the 
consequence? The display of these sentiments will 
alarm those whom they threaten, who will always be 
on their guard ; precautions will be redoubled ; and we 
shall live in peace, as if in a state of war, behind a 
rampart erected to protect a country menaced vi^ith at- 
tack. 

To the events of the epoch that has just passed, we 
may apply the same observations. The writers on af- 
fairs relative to the interior of France, afford us no 
greater prospects of peace than those who have pub- 
lished their sentiments on its external relations. 

These portraits of past disorders are always the 
same, and contain the same imputations— the same re- 
proaches. It is always the whole nation that is repre- 

3d. That the regulation of all public affairs shoald be superintended by 
a body of the nobility ; all other classes having nothing more to do than at- 
tend to their own, and at the same time be grateful to the body thus willing 
to save them such unnecessary trouble. 

4th. That the existence of Europe will cease when the atheistical dogma 
of the sovereignty of the people shall prevail. Whatever respect may be due 
to the talents as well as the habitually elevated ideas of this author, we may- 
conjecture that when he permitted himself to form such combinations, his 
genius was (for once) slumbering. There is another volume, the work of 
M.Bignon, which, on account of much valuable information, demands our 
attention. It relates to the different states of Europe ; but, unfortunately, 
contains accusations of England, and opinions hostile to the interests of 
Belgium. 

Gg 



234 Congress of Vienna. 

sented as blameable for those events at which almost all 
the nation has shuddered. How many innocent men 
find themselves thus assailed by a single ill-defined 
word ! How many men, repulsed and chagrined by 
these general, unqualified, and promiscuous attacks, 
withdraw and separate themselves from those objects 
which they desired, from those objects on which they 
had began to place their afiections, but, in the pursuit 
of which neither justice nor happiness were to be found. 

Men are lightly and undeservedly brought before the 
tribunal of history, under an imputation of charges of 
which they were ignorant. The bar resounds with the 
complaints of some, and the envenomed defences of 
others. Party accusations re-echo party accusations ; 
and as nothing conduces more to the formation of parties 
than a supposition of their existence, the frequent men- 
tion of them soon occasions their formation. 

Without noticing the little genius indicated by these 
declamations, repeated as well without limit as without 
taste ; as fatiguing to their hearers as they are useless 
to their object; it is sufficient that we observe their ef- 
fects ; and the fruit which they have produced to France 
•—discord instead of the peace which they expected — 
which they invoked — which would have constituted 
the happiness of all ; clouds instead of that serene sky 
which might have been expected on a day which had 
commenced so fair, and whose dawn had been hailed 
with such joy and gladaess. Every Frenchman who 
employs himself in writing ought ever to have in view 
these circumstances : — 

1st. That it is as profitable to tire a Frenchman as 
to amuse a Lacedemonian. 

Sd. That every opinion too strongly enforced, has 
always an air of imposition [Vairirrfposee), and by that 
means loses its authority. 

3d. That the true Frenchman may be compared with 
the Athenian who voted for the banishment of Aristides, 
because he was tired with hearing him called the Just. 



Congress of Vienna. S35 

CHAPTER XXX. 

The last Treaty. 

The act connecting the affairs of France with the 
Powers of Europe not forming part of the Congress of 
Vienna, has not engaged our attention. Besides, the 
period of great pain is not that most calculated for re- 
flection. We shall confine ourselves to the following 
ohservations : 

1st. However sombre and well founded may be the 
grief into which France has been plunged by this trea- 
ty, nevertheless misfortune ought not to make her un- 
just, in suffering a government, whose reputation has 
immediately suffered by it, to be blamed for an act, the 
necessity of which it has not itself created, and (if which 
it could only moderate the severity. On those alone 
who have been the cause of this dire necessity should 
the censure fall. What crime had France committed 
to induce them to involve her in this disaster? 

2d. The transition from the rank which France 
occupied, to its present degradation, is well calculated 
to warn other nations of the danger of unreservedly 
yielding the charge of their government into the hands 
of one individual. Previous to the 18 Brumaire, France 
was powerful, victorious, the mistress of Belgium and 
the left bank of the Rhine. She never aspired to more ; 
and if she has proceeded farther, it was owing to the 
personal views of her chief; for if even his conquests 
had been made without the assistance of France, he 
would at least have conquered in spite of her. She has 
ever been the instrument and the subject, but never the 
object of what has been undertaken. To what may this 
be ascribed ? To the want of a constitution in France. 
Had she been supported by institutions so sufficiently 
powerful as to prevent her learning from the gazette one 



236 Congress of Vienna. 

day that she was at war with such a prince, another 
that such a family has ceased to reign, France it is true 
would never have assumed the character of a conquer- 
ing nation, (fortius there was not much necessity;) but 
she would not have been twice invaded : (of this there 
was much less necessity.) Whatever constitotion France 
possessed, having been merely formed to give power to 
the prince, he found himself enabled to dispose of the 
resources of a nation, active, intelligent, and brave. 
With means like these, much might have been achieved 
—-and much certainly has. But what are the conse- 
quences? A good constitution would have eqjially pre- 
vented victory and defeat. France would have had less 
brilliant acts to commemorate, but !ier future prospects 
would have borne a less gloomy aspect. Snares or ca- 
lamities lurk concealed from the gaze of nations beneath 
the laurels gathered by warlike princes. Besides, there 
is no excess to which there is not a termination fixed, 
and a punishment assigned. 

3d. We find in this treaty a justification of the fears 
we intimated on the subject of the approximation of the 
Prussian to the French frontiers. Behold Prussia taking 
possession of Saar Louis ; and the frontiers of France, 
which extend to the possessions she has just obtained on 
the Saar. Tiiis is the result of the system which de- 
prived the former of Saxony. She has very soon gather- 
ed its fruits. Prussia, stationed at the entrance of 
France, has endeavoured to prepare herself for ward- 
ing off the first blows which this powerful body could 
strike at that division of the monarchy which lay at so 
great a distance from its centre. To accomplish this, it 
was necessary to enlarge and fortify her frontier ; and 
as France was alone able to contribute to it, Prussia has 
formed this frontier at her expense; a frontier not to 
be obiainesi from any other source. She has availed 
herself of the first opportunity to apply the dismem- 
berment of France to her own advantage, in expecta- 
tion of benefits arising from other circumstances. 

4th. Whatever may be the amount of the pecuniary 



Congress of Vienna. 2S7 

sacrifices made by France, it will not exceed lier pow- 
ers of liquidating it; because it will not exceed her 
wishes to fulfil her engagements. There is no country 
that, as long as it has the wish, has not the power to 
discharge its debts. As long as the sun shall shine on 
France — as long as her soil continues fertile- — as long 
as the industrious hands which support her manufacto- 
ries are not chained, the wounds received may be found 
to be severe, but they will not prove mortal. We are 
far from participating in the vulgar fears as to the squan- 
dering of money. M. Necker has informed us that the 
sum of 500,000,000 was expended by France, in 17^6, 
on the states of Lower Germany, in a war as vain in its 
design as it was disastrous in its result. This sum of 
500,000,000 was equivalent to more than 700,000,000 
now. The expatriated French, in 1790, have been able 
to ascertain that French capital formed the basis of pe- 
cuniary transactions in these countries. But in what 
way has this migration of the precious metals impove- 
rished France, or affected the circulation necessary to 
the exchanges ? The same will happen again. Then 
let us carry our views still higher, and let us not re- 
strict our search to the resources to be found in the cof- 
fers of France. Public order is the foundation- stone ^ 
and let this order be universally established ; let it be 
rendered firm ; let it every day unite still more public 
and private interests; let there be but one. Let the va- 
lue be given to property, of which it is susceptible, by 
an increase of that sentiment of sincerity, that will per« 
manently fix in France that capital which, springing 
from the bowels of the earth, will return with equal fa- 
cility under an obscure or serene sky. Let every spe- 
cies of industry continue free ; let every controversy 
cease : and, above all, let division be banished from 
this great family. The weight of calamity will then be- 
come tolerable. Above all, let not the interest of the 
state be betrayed by any of its members. We are not 
now to think of the sacrifices that have been necessary 
to our safety. When the vessel of the state is tossed 



238 Congress of Vienna 

nbout by the tempest, it is relieved by throwing over- 
board part of the cargo : the cargo, and not the rudder, 
is cast into the sea, and which they offer as a sacrifice, 
to appease the angry ocean. 

5th. The military possession for many years of a vast 
extent of country, and of the fortresses which constitute 
the defence of France ; the renewal of treaties, which 
originally were defensive, and which, in their actual 
state, become threatening, sufficiently show the jealousy 
Europe entertains of France, whether considered as a 
political or a social body. By it, France (we are com- 
pelled to allow it) is placed in a stsite of surveillance, and 
excluded in some measure from the great society of Eu- 
rope. Such a state contains too much constraint to be 
long borne. But what is it necessary to do to bring it to 
a conclusion ? We must labour to cure the evil by the 
means that produced it. Thus Europe testifies her fears 
fjf the possibility of an irruption of the French into those 
territories which they have been obliged to surrender; 
she suffers the same distrust to extend to ti»e state of her 
public mind. It would be easy to show that these fears 
are exaggerated, and that they arise from causes which 
no longer exist. During the revolution, strangers have 
not unfrequently been deceived with regard to the inte- 
rior of France. It is because tiiey have been unable to 
understand its internal system. 

It is a thorough conviction of the probability of its en- 
joying internal and external security, which will pro- 
duce confidence in the minds of strangers. Now nothing 
is more easy to achieve, if but a wish for it is entertain- 
ed. To obtain this end, let every Frenchman imitate 
and second the determination announced by govern- 
ment, religiously to fulfil the condition of an act which 
was called for by a necessity for preservation of the bo- 
dy of the state. Let every regret for the past, and every 
improper view to the future, be carefully discarded. Of 
what service will they be? When all Europe can be- 
lieve that the French have really given up all preten- 
sions to Belgium and the left bank of the Khine ; that 



Congress of Vienna. 239 

they are firmly resolved to confine themselves within 
their own territories, and to remain there without am- 
bition and without fear; then what motives can Europe 
have to nourish hatred to France? In this respect, great 
and frequent improprieties have been committed since 
the treaty of Paris, and the greatest care ought to be 
taken to prevent their recurrence. But this is not all : 
for more than a year past, one half of the French have 
endeavoured to get the other considered as a people 
hostile to authority and morality ; the other half is sure 
to recriminate. Thus is the nation forced by its own 
conduct to go before a tribunal of foreigners. What 
confidence and consideration can they allow to those 
who do not allow it to themselves ? If they wish to calm 
the fears of others, let them cease to evince any them- 
selves. Let us display to Europe a people reunited in 
the same sentiments of attachment to her government, 
to the honour of the nation, and its prosperity; let them 
rely on the same principles ; let them speak the same 
language, equally a stranger to the exaggerations which 
elevate the minds of some and depress the spirits of 
others, and let them re-enter that family from which 
misfortune has separated them ; then there would be no 
source of fears for foreigners, and France will be in a 
condition to demand that a period should be put to 
those jealousies, the continuance of which can ouly be 
considered as an insult. 

Frenchmen ! If, at the close of a work in which your 
interests have uniformly been the objects of our tender- 
est solicitude, we were permitted to address you, we 
would say, console yourselves ; your misfortunes are 
not your own work, success alone is to be attributed to 
you. It is your chiefs who, by abusing those powers 
which in other hands would have insured to you a long 
train of prosperity, have produced your calamities. One 
of your sovereigns has immortalised himself by saying, 
after a catastrophe, the result of which was more disas- 
trous than the present, Every thing is lost hut honour I 
This sentence obliterated the memory of his defeat, as 



210 congress of Vienna. 

long as sincere expression shall possess influence among 
you. Well, nothing is lost, and honour still less than 
any thing else. You have not been defeated, for you 
have not even had to fight. All that you feel is the ef- 
fect of an action which, in its commencement, in its 
progress, and in its conclusion, defies definition. Twice 
has Europe in arras traversed your cities and your 
country decked with the emblems of peace ; through 
the midst of citizens, anxious to avoid all resistance, 
and eager to show submission. If any of your ramparts 
have been attacked, the courage of your warriors has 
commanded the homage of the enemy, who could not 
reconcile such resistance with such feeble means of sap- 
porting it. You have filled the world with sufficient mo- 
numents of your genius ; perhaps too many of your war- 
like valour ; a new species of glory now awaits you, 
that of constancy and dignity in misfortune. Show that 
you are superior to it : the only way is to meet it fairly, 
and support it without complaint. Turn your eyes from 
the political field in which you have gathered nothing 
but thorns, and in which you find all Europe in arms 
against you. For years to come, think of nothing but 
how to fertilise the soil on which you live, and there to 
establish the virtues which placed your forefathers the 
first in rank among the people of Europe. Then recon- 
cile yourselves, and you will be enabled to offer a truly 
brotherly hand to all nations, and require them to lay 
aside their unjust suspicions, and for their own interest 
even to add to the means of your prosperity. That land, 
which has given birth to men such as Montesquieu, 
Pascal, Bossuet, Fenelon, and to a hundred others who 
have diffused lights pure as they are brilliant, will al- 
ways be esteemed the country of true sociability and 
reason. Sheltered by these great and illustrious names, 
you may equally defy comparisons and reproach. 



THE END. 














^^-^^ 


















0- 







A^^"^-^ 
-^^ V 






k" % A^ *V 









NOV. 68 

EO^^ N. MANCHESTER 
INDIANA 







> 



^0• 







^^--^ 



.0- 




